Systems and methods for internet searching

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for a brand search ecosystem accessed via a network including a database of brands and branded products, locations, features, and services with input on business rules, algorithms, and information from brandholders and/or providing economic incentive payments to participants in the brand search ecosystem. The brand search ecosystem includes a brand name database including a plurality of brands and brandholders and brandbidders associated with respective brands. A search engine communicates with brandholders and the brand name database via a network for accessing information of brandholders and the brand name database to identify brandholders and brandbidders associated with brands. The search engine receives search requests from users, accesses the brand name database, and provides search results to the users. A clearing house processes economic incentive payments to brandholders and/or brandbidders associated with brands in the database.

This application claims benefit of provisional application Ser. No.60/744,804, filed Apr. 13, 2006, the entire disclosure of which isexpressly incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to systems and methods for finding and/ordisplaying information of various types via a network, such as theInternet, and other electronic and digital searches and/or mediadisplays and communications.

BACKGROUND

The Internet has become a new medium for finding and/or displayinginformation of all types, including information about products,services, and locations. The most common process through whichinformation on the Internet (collectively referred to as “Content”) isdiscovered is using Internet Search Engines (“Search Engines”). Contentincludes but is not limited to all information, communications, media,leaders, websites, images, tags, meta tags, domain names, applications,and the like, whether displayed on or through the Internet or throughother methods and media. Search Engines are typically operated by majorInternet companies (“Search Companies”) that specialize or provideinternet search (“Internet Search” or “Search”) as all or a portion oftheir content and value to internet users, such as Google, Yahoo, andMSN. Search Companies operate Search Engines in order to presentInternet users (“Internet Users”) relevant information (“SearchResults”) on search engine results pages and other Internet pages. It isprojected that Internet Users in the United States alone will exceed onehundred fifty million by 2007. Internet Search has created several newindustries described below, yet it is still in its infancy, and, for avariety of reasons, Internet Search is arguably less effective todaythan it was a few years ago.

As discussed in more detail below, Search Companies face many new anddaunting challenges trying to ensure that their Search Engines provideInternet Users relevant and compelling Search Results. These challengesinclude: a) the prolific, exponential growth in both the depth andbreadth of Content, b) the rapid pace of changing Content, c) thedifficulty of interpreting (or parsing) search requests (“SearchRequests”) by a variety of Internet Users, d) the depth, breadth anddynamic nature of terms, keywords, phrases, and/or other search terms(“Search Terms”) used in Search Requests, e) the rapidly changinglexicography of words compounded by multiple languages, dialects, slangterms, and colloquialisms, f) the need to develop and maintain ataxonomy of Search Terms, and g) the increase in the number andcomplexity of Content pages that are generated dynamically instead ofcontaining static, and more easily crawlable and/or indexable Content.

All of these challenges associated with providing relevant and optimizedSearch Results are magnified by the sheer vastness of the economicsinvolved in this rapidly changing medium and the potential economicrewards of both legitimate and illegitimate use, misuse, and/ormanipulation of Search Results. The vastness of the economic rewards maybe illustrated by Google, which has developed a one hundred billiondollar market capitalization, making it one of the most valuablecompanies in the world in just a few years.

Even without the magnitude of revenues and market capitalization thatmay be earned by Search Companies, the incentive and temptation ofenterprising companies and individuals to legitimately or illegitimatelyimpact and manipulate search Results to their economic advantage istremendous. First, virtually all Search Companies have devised systemswhereby they share a portion of the revenues they derive from PaidSearch Results (as defined below) with companies and persons(collectively “Affiliates”) who display the Paid Search Results, andthese Affiliates may make millions from merely displaying the PaidSearch Results on their pages that generate paid clicks, calls, andactivities that trigger a charge for Paid Advertising, or othermonetizable actions (collectively “Monetizable Actions”). Affiliates maymake substantial sums by merely getting Internet Users to their sitesand having the Internet User click-through on Paid Search Results, i.e.,“click” or otherwise select Content or an active icon, e.g., on awebpage, that forwards the user directly to a website or other location(referred to herein as a “click-through”). Second, Internet commerce hasbecome a multi-billion dollar industry where Internet traffic drivessales and revenues for Internet companies. It is extremely valuable toget a targeted or even “ready-to-buy” Internet User/buyer to a websiteto purchase goods and services on the website, or to be able to referthe Internet User/buyer to vendors as a qualified lead. Third, more andmore non-Internet commerce is originated and transacted on, orsignificantly influenced by, Content found and reviewed on the Internet,whether in connection with Search Results or otherwise. Therefore,getting Internet Users to visit an enterprise's website to make Internetpurchases or ultimately influence non-Internet purchases throughadvertising or Content on the website may be tremendously valuable.

Efforts by clever website operators and their advisors and consultantsto elevate their sites and Content in Search Results and/or otherwisecapitalize or exploit inefficiencies or loopholes in the currentInternet Search ecosystem has and may remain an additional andsignificant challenge to Internet Users, advertisers, and SearchCompanies. All of these challenges combine to support the position thatSearch Results today are tremendously more voluminous, obtuse, andmanipulated, which results in less accurate and usable Search Resultsthan just a few short years ago. Furthermore, there are some inherentshortcomings in the current Internet Search ecosystem that, untilresolved or mitigated, are likely to cause the problems to continue andgrow, likely causing the system to become more and more inefficientand/or distorted and inhibiting or perhaps even effectively thwartingvarious improvements to the system.

One of the increasingly popular types of Internet Searches are localInternet searches (“Local Searches”) that are focused on finding localstores, products, and/or information near a specific location, usuallynear the Internet User conducting the Search. In most cases, these typesof Internet Users are seeking information about where to buy productsand services at stores near where the Internet Users are or are going tobe. Location adds a new element to Internet Searches, and SearchCompanies are just now focusing on the unique nature and challenges ofLocal Searches.

In addition to Search Requests conducted by Internet Users throughpersonal computers and other full-sized computer terminals (“PCs”),there has been a prolific growth in the number of Internet Users who areaccessing or viewing Content (or using programs and applications thatare accessing Content) from non-PC computing devices, including mobilephones, televisions, vehicle navigation systems, kiosks, lobby andelevator monitors and displays, and the like. (collectively, “Non-PCDevices”). Many of these Non-PC Devices have limited keyboard inputand/or are used in cases where typing and inputting Search Requests aredifficult and/or reviewing numerous Search Results is impossible orineffective.

Over the past several years, the volume of Content available on theInternet and through other forms of media has increased exponentiallydue to the proliferation of low-cost digital media and its availabilityto the masses because of its extreme portability. Regarding the displayof Content in connection with Internet Searches, several methods havebeen developed by Internet Search Companies to facilitate InternetSearches. These methods generally fall into two broad categories. Thefirst type of Search Results is algorithmically derived by theapplication of various business or search rules that are determined bythe Search Company (“Organic Search Results”). The second type of SearchResults is Search Results that are based on paid, bidded, or “sponsored”links and placements (“Paid Search Results”). The inclusion and order ofPaid Search Results are typically determined by Search Companies throughthe application of various business or Paid Search Results rules thatare determined by the Search Company. These rules are typically drivenby the prices bid by various Content providers desiring to have theirContent associated with Paid Search Results, and over the years SearchCompanies have developed various rules that are variously and/orostensibly designed to enhance the nature and quality of the Paid SearchResults provided to the User and/or to maximize the revenue generated tothe Search Company through the quantity and value of click-throughs tothe Paid Search Results. The original goal of both of these types ofsearches was to deliver Internet Users relevant Content and/orhyperlinks to Internet Content, but over the years the vastness ofInternet Content has made it increasingly difficult to meet this goal.

Organic Search Results are typically determined by the Search Companiesanalyzing Internet Content contained in the indexes they have createdfrom crawling and spidering millions of Internet websites and Contentand then providing Internet Users Search Results including websites andContent that are designed to match their Search Requests.

Most Search Engines support the use of descriptors and embeddedinstructions that can be used by sophisticated Internet Users to refinetheir Search Requests. Examples may include using Boolean terms likeAND, OR, and NOT between Search Terms, and even advanced search logic,e.g. allowing an Internet User to specify the desired distance betweentwo or more Search Terms. Such terms are referred to herein as “SearchLogic Terms.”

Although there may be millions of pages of Internet Content that includeparticular words and phrases that are Indexed by the Search Companies,some Internet pages will have more relevant information and/or be morepopular or useful than other pages. Many Search Engines use variousmethods of determining the order in which Organic Search Results aredisplayed, and it is believed in the industry that major Search Enginesmay consider as many as one hundred fifty different factors in rankingOrganic Search Results for Internet Users. These factors, their relevantweight, and the rules associated with their use vary from Search Companyto Search Company, change and evolve significantly over time, and inmany cases are kept secret from Internet Users and website operators.Part of the effectiveness of these factors is their secrecy, and in factpart of the proprietary assets of Search Companies are the various rulesthey use to determine Organic Search Results.

When an Internet User inputs Search Terms in a Search Request todescribe a desired Internet Search, Search Companies typically attemptto parse and interpret the Search Terms to provide relevant SearchResults. It is common today for Internet Search Companies to merelyprovide Internet Users with an open box within which to type in a SearchRequest, although many companies provide links and menus of variouslevels and degrees of sophistication to make it easier, quicker, or moreeffective for Internet Users to indirectly find what they are lookingfor by submitting a Search Request related to a link or item from themenu.

Even with the use of Search Logic Terms, parsing Search Terms from anopen box Search Request creates numerous difficulties because of thenumerous possible interpretations of the Search Requests. SearchCompanies use sophisticated algorithms (“Search Algorithms”) tointerpret the Search Requests, but because of the proliferation ofContent and Internet Users, it has become increasingly difficult to doso effectively.

Internet Search Companies typically do not disclose the formulas andcriteria by which they determine Organic Search Results, and theytypically try to obscure and continuously revise and alter SearchAlgorithms, but Search Engine Optimization companies (“SEOs”) describedbelow and others are very adept at efforts to improve their inclusionand ranking in Organic Search Results. Of course, the more SEOs andothers attempt to alter Organic Search Results to their benefit, themore the Search Companies revise their Search Algorithms and attempt toneutralize the unjustified efforts of SEOs, which of course then causesthe SEOs to adjust their techniques, resulting in a never ending cycleof action/reaction. The net result of all of this is that Organic SearchResults may become distorted and are often far from optimal.Importantly, Search Companies today typically guard their SearchAlgorithms carefully, and to date it does not appear that SearchCompanies enlist the support and cooperation (formally or informally) ofother parties in the initial or ongoing design, development,implementation, and modification of their Search Algorithms.

Paid Search Results are typically determined by the Search Companies byproviding Internet Users with Content links, listings, and/oradvertising that, while responsive to Search Requests, are primarilydetermined by the amounts that Advertisers are willing to pay to beincluded and ranked high in response to Search Requests. The amountsthat Advertisers are willing to pay are often referred to and will bereferred to herein as “Bids” or the “Bid Price” per Monetizable Action.Paid Search Results often appear in Search Results under the phrase“Sponsored Results,” where they are typically displayed above OrganicSearch Results. An advertising product and system closely related andsimilar to Paid Search may use a system similar to Paid Search Resultsfor purposes of acquiring, storing, and displaying paid, bidded, orsponsored search advertising (“Paid Advertising”, and together with PaidSearch Results, “Paid Search Results”).

While Paid Advertising is often displayed at or near Search Results,Paid Advertising is also often displayed directly on Internet Contentseparate from Search Results. Search Companies attempt to increase thevalue of the Paid Advertising by requiring that the Paid Advertising berelated to certain categories covered by the Content with which it isdisplayed. Although not technically displayed as a result of an InternetSearch, the system of acquiring, bidding, and delivering PaidAdvertising works in a manner very similar to the systems associatedwith delivering Paid Search Results, and Paid Advertising is often soldand managed in systems that are intimately and seamlessly integratedwith Paid Search Results and shares many of the challenges of PaidSearch Results.

Paid Search Results are included, ordered and prioritized, or otherwiseimpacted by the payments or “Bids” placed by the Advertisers (“Bidders”)to associate their Content with certain Search Terms included in SearchRequests. Payments by Advertisers for these types of advertisingtypically take the form of pay per click, pay per call, and other formsof pay for performance advertising (collectively referred to herein as“Pay for Performance Advertising”). In these Pay for PerformanceAdvertising systems, Advertisers may Bid any amount that they arewilling to pay to increase the ranking of their Content included anddisplayed in Paid Search Results. The overall results of the combinationof Paid Search Results and Pay for Performance is a very robust andcompetitive “Pay to Play” advertising environment and Paid SearchResults ecosystem that has allowed Search Companies to leverage theirposition and drive tremendous Paid Search Results revenues and profitsin just a few years.

It is clear that a significant goal of Search Companies vis-à-visInternet Searches in recent years has been to maximize the revenuesderived from Paid Search Results. In fact, one well-known Search Companyderived ninety nine percent (99%) of its revenues from Paid SearchResults and Paid Advertising. Interestingly, despite the numerousfactors used by Search Companies to provide relevant Organic SearchResults, there is essentially one dominant factor that controls theranking of Paid Search Results—how much money the Advertiser is willingto spend. The efforts and number of factors applied to determine andoptimize Paid Search Results are extremely limited and typically focuson the amount Bid by Advertisers and the quantity and value of revenuesdriven by “click-throughs.” Although various Search Companies have begunvarious methods of adjusting their paid Search Algorithms and proceduresto add other factors into the determination of Paid Search Results, thenumber and nature of these efforts and factors are dwarfed by theefforts and factors applied to Organic Search Results.

Search Companies may apply various Search Algorithms and metrics otherthan the amount Bid by a Paid Advertising Advertiser to determine theorder of Paid Search Results, but it appears that oftentimes thesealgorithmically derived adjustments to Paid Search Results are notfocused so much on delivering more relevant and meaningful responses toa Search Request, but rather are focused on maximizing the totalrevenues (typically the quantity of Monetizable Actions generated timesthe Bid Price per Monetizable Actions) derived by the Search Company,thereby further distorting and biasing the relevancy of the SearchResults delivered to the Internet User. This is one of the mostpervasive problems with Paid Search Results. In the short-run, SearchCompanies are tremendously disincented to display or rank PaidAdvertising in any manner other than the order that will maximize theSearch Companies revenues and income, namely, the order that will drivethe most clicks at the highest prices.

Because crawling Internet Websites to assist in providing Organic SearchResults may be slow and take significant time to discover, index, andinclude Content in Search Results, many Search Companies allow Contentproviders to pay to have their websites included in Organic SearchResults (“Pay for Inclusion”). While not typically affecting ranking ofresults, Pay for Inclusion is another way that Search Companies makemoney from Advertisers desiring to ensure that their Content is includedin Search Results.

Optimizing the exposure of websites and other Content on Search Resultspages displaying Organic Search Results has created a new industryreferred to as Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”), and numerous SEOcompanies (“SEOs”) specialize in improving the inclusion and ranking oftheir customers' websites in Organic Search Results. The type, nature,quality, and number of links to Content is also sometimes used todetermine the ranking of Organic Search Results. Importantly, manywebsite developers and SEOs have devised ways to impact and alter theOrganic Search Results to their benefit to gain valuable Internettraffic. Many of these approaches may not provide end users with themore relevant Organic Search Results that would be derived without SEOs“gaming” the system to increase the inclusion and ranking of Content inOrganic Search Results.

SEOs attempt to improve rankings for the Content by ensuring thatappropriate Search Terms are embedded in the Content that are mostrelevant to the Search Terms used by the Search Algorithms. This isaccomplished by including various terms in the Content or related webpages, but it is also accomplished by modifying or manipulating SearchTerms in title pages, meta tags, headings, and even modifying thearchitecture, internal and external link structure, and navigation of awebsite and Content.

Optimizing the exposure of websites and other Content on Search Resultspages and other Content displaying Paid Search Results has also createda new and significant industry referred to as Search Engine Marketing(“SEM”) and numerous SEM companies (“SEMs”) specialize in sellingproducts and services designed to enhance the inclusion and ranking ofwebsites and other content in Paid Search Results.

SEM has evolved into a very large industry, and while Internet SearchCompanies work to improve Organic Search Results, well-known companiesmake virtually all of their revenue selling Paid Advertising designed toenhance the Advertiser's position in Paid Search Results. Unfortunately,the ecosystem surrounding Paid Search Results is focused primarily onranking advertisers who Bid on certain search terms or keywords,typically based solely on the amount of the Bid that the advertiser iswilling pay for a click-through to the website or other action, e.g. atelephone call. It has even encouraged the development of specializedwebsite operators known as “Arbitrageurs.” Arbitrageurs are WebsiteOperators who Bid on keywords in an effort to get traffic to theirwebsites, so that traffic will click on Paid Search Results displayed onthe Arbitrageur's website, resulting in the Website Operator earningslightly more from the click-through than the Website Operator paid toget the traffic to its sites. The Paid Advertising model has becomepervasive in today's Internet Search world, and with the proliferationof Arbitrageurs, SEMs, and innovative website developers, this PaidAdvertising model in many cases may result in substantially distortedand biased Paid Search Results that are not optimal for Internet Users.

As described above, it has become increasingly difficult for InternetUsers to find relevant and relevantly filtered Organic Search Resultsand Paid Search Results. Similarly, Paid Search Results have becomeincreasingly biased due to these problems and the added issues anddistortions that may be caused by purely, dominantly, or even partiallyeconomically driven Paid Advertising system. Thus, the current InternetSearch ecosystem has become less effective for both Internet Users andAdvertisers. Unfortunately, because of the nature of Paid Search and thephenomenal economic success of this system, Advertisers are essentiallyforced to “Pay to Play” in the Paid Advertising system in order to gainthe much desired access to Internet Users through Search Results.

The tremendous increase in the number of websites and detailedinformation available on the Internet has caused the sheer volume ofinformation to become so tremendous that it is becoming more and moredifficult for users to find what they want through Internet SearchRequests. It is not uncommon to get thousands or even millions ofresponses to a common search term. For example, Exhibit A in provisionalapplication Ser. No. 60/744,804 shows a response from Mar. 13, 2006 fora Search Request including only the Search Term “Ford” on Googleincluded one hundred forty two million (142,000,000) responses, ashighlighted at “A.” If one were to spend ten seconds reviewing eachresponse for eight hours every day nonstop, it would still take years toreview each of the Search Results.

The current Internet Search paradigm for Organic Search Results may bedescribed as “unstructured search and unstructured results,” and usersare becoming more and more frustrated in their efforts to quicklyrequest and receive precisely what they are looking for in InternetSearches. In addition, Internet Companies may be disincented to doanything to alter the Paid Advertising system because of thetremendously negative impact it would have on their business models,revenues, and their resulting market capitalizations if they fail tomeet their growth expectations.

Clever Internet Website Operators, including Arbitrageurs and otherswhose primary business objective may be exploiting the Internet Searchecosystem for economic gain rather than developing or providingmeaningful content to Internet Users, have developed various ways toincrease their chances of being displayed and elevated in SearchResults.

While most Search Companies have a process for determining whether ornot a particular Advertiser should be allowed to Bid and purchaseparticular Search Terms, these systems are essentially limited todetermining whether the Advertiser has some connection, however slight,to the keyword or Search Terms for which they are bidding. Thus, thePaid Advertising system is fairly open and numerous bidders can “gamethe system” in order to Bid on Search Terms and have their Contentappear in Paid Search Results. For example, Exhibit A in provisionalapplication Ser. No. 60/744,804 shows the inclusion of a PaidAdvertisement, highlighted at “B,” found under the phrase “SponsoredLinks” on the Search Results page for a plaintiff's lawyer seekingplaintiffs to sue Ford in the Paid Search Results. It is unlikely thatFord authorized the Advertiser to use the term “Ford” in itsadvertising, and under the Paid Advertising system, Ford Motor Company,together with all of its Authorized Brand Licensees, may be forced toBid against this plaintiff's law firm for placement in Paid SearchResults. If the Internet User is seeking to learn more about Fordautomobiles or to find the closest Ford Dealer, it is unlikely that thisInternet User wants to see an ad or “Sponsored Link” for such aplaintiff's lawyer, and the presence of this “link” may negativelyimpact the Internet User's impression of Ford.

Oftentimes Internet Users are frustrated when looking for specificbrands because so many different Paid Search Results are displayed. Ifthe Internet User searches for the Search Term “Panasonic,” they may ormay not want to see “Sony” products, since there is probably a reasonthey used the Search Term “Panasonic” in their Search Request instead of“Sony” or a generic product description. Similarly, if the Internet Usersearches for “Panasonic DVRs,” again they may or may not want to see“Sony DVRs.” They may already own a Panasonic DVR and merely be lookingfor customer support, a copy of the owners' manual, a service or partscenter, online troubleshooting or user groups, and the like. It is notfair to assume that an Internet User is looking to buy a DVR of anybrand, much less a competing brand, yet given the current InternetSearch ecosystem it is likely that the Internet User will be shown PaidSearch Results and links to eCommerce sites trying to sell him a DVR ofany type or Brand, often those of the competitor of the Brand that wasincluded in the User Search Request. Thus, the paradox of the currentsearch ecosystem is that an owner, licensee or other holder of a brandmay spend millions over several years to build a brand, developawareness and value associated with their brand, only to have acompetitor out bid the brandholder and therefore rank its Content higherin the Paid Search Results.

Another example of the inefficient Search Results related to a SearchRequest is set forth on Exhibit C of provisional Ser. No. 60/744,804,which shows the first page of results for a search for “Marriott'sShadow Ridge” on Google on Apr. 9, 2006. Marriott's Shadow Ridge is amajor residential condominium resort complex in Palm Desert, Calif. Notethat none of the “Sponsored Links” in the right column or the first fewSearch Results in the left column are websites operated by Marriott'sShadow Ridge complex or any related party. Instead, all of the SponsoredLinks are paid for by various travel related sites that have links tothis specific resort and/or promote this specific resort to InternetUsers. In many cases, these sites are Arbitrageurs that are attemptingto intercept Internet Users looking for Marriott's Shadow Ridge in aneffort to pull the Internet User to the Arbitrageur's website and makemoney on the Internet Users clicking on Paid Search Results on theArbitrageur's site. In fact, the Arbitrageur may simply be trying to getthe Internet User to the Arbitrageur's site so that the Internet Userwill then click on a Content link to the Marriott's Shadow Ridgewebsite, thereby allowing the Arbitrageur to monetize the Internet Useras it passes through the Arbitrageur's websites. In some cases, InternetUsers pass through numerous Arbitrageur's websites as they relentlesslysearch for what they wanted in the first place—the website forMarriott's Shadow Ridge. Alternatively, these Website Operators may beattempting to get the Internet User to visit their website to book areservation at Marriott's Shadow Ridge and/or another propertyrepresented by the Website Operator, or they may just be enterprisinglodging Website Operators looking to capture lodging traffic.

The Paid Search Results and Organic Search Results show listings and orsponsored listings from such companies as Vacationclub.com,SellmyTimeshare.com, yahoo.com, ebay.com, hotels.com, andtripadvisor.com. The inefficiency of this system is readily apparentfrom the above results, and this inefficiency may be directly related toadditional Paid Search costs for the Marriott's Shadow Ridge Resortbecause they have to Bid against others who are Bidding on Marriott'sShadow Ridge Brand. While the inefficiencies of this type of system isclear, these very inefficiencies drive substantial Paid Search revenuesto major Search Companies as those companies typically earn and retain asubstantial portion of the Paid Search revenues on each and every paidclick that an Internet User makes in their journey to the site they werelooking for all along. Thus, Search Companies may make two to five (2-5)times as much money for each Internet Users using their system than theywould if the Internet User were correctly directed immediately to theContent they were initially seeking. Given the resources and success ofthe Search Companies, it is likely that they have the capability tobuild a better system, one that may more easily and efficiently directInternet Users directly to Marriott's Shadow Ridge resort, and there aresome efforts to do so, but it would appear that these efforts areineffective and are likely to fall short.

Accordingly, systems and methods that may address the difficultiesand/or flaws in these types of results and/or that may provide new andinnovative ways to improve Internet Search Results would be useful.

SUMMARY

The present invention is directed to systems and methods for displayingContent through media of all types, including Internet Searches, e.g.,as a result of conducting searches over a network, such as the Internet,and/or on computing devices, such as vehicle navigation systems, PCs,and Non-PC Devices, based at least in part upon Search Terms and/orother factors, e.g., that include Brands and/or Branded Products, suchas trademarks, trade names, and the like pursuant to a brand searchecosystem. In an exemplary embodiment, a “Brand Search Ecosystem” or“BSE” may be provided that allows Brandholders at least some directand/or indirect measures of input, participation, and/or control (asfurther defined below, collectively “Input” or “BSE Input”) in thedelivery of Search Results. The systems and methods described herein maystreamline, improve, and/or optimize Search Results and the InternetUser experience, minimize dilution that may be negatively impactingBrandholders in the current Internet Search ecosystems and paradigms,and/or allow Brandholders to more effectively retain and grow thetangible and intangible economic benefits associated with their Brands.The systems and methods may provide for creating databases, searchparadigms, and/or incentives among participants in the BSE to supportautomated Brand-based, pay-per-performance search and advertisingsystems whether or not related directly to Internet Searches.

Optionally, the Brand Search Ecosystem may include a variety of featuresand/or functionality, including various incentives (“BSE Incentives”)for the benefit of Brandholders, persons bidding on Search Terms thatinclude Brands (“Brandbidders”) in order to have their Content includedin Paid Search Results, Internet Users, and other participants in theBSE (collectively, “BSE Participants”). BSE Incentives may includenon-economic benefits and incentives (“BSE Non-Economic Incentives”) andeconomic incentives (e.g., credits, allocations, expense reimbursements,etc.) (“BSE Economic Incentives”), including Economic Incentive Payments(“EIPs”). EIPs include payments or allocations of monetary or monetarilydefinable consideration from a BSE Participant to another BSEParticipant. For example, a BSE Search Company may make an EIP to aBrandholder or a Brandbidder, a Brandholder may make an EIP payment to aBrandbidder or Internet User, and the like.

In accordance with one embodiment, a system is provided for searchingvia a network based upon brands and/or providing economic incentivepayments to one or more participants in the system. The system includesa brand name database including a plurality of brands and brandholdersand brandbidders associated with respective brands. One or more searchengines may communicate with the brand name database, e.g., via anetwork, for accessing the brand name database to identify brandholdersand brandbidders associated with brands included in search inquiriesreceived by the search engine via the network. The search engine mayalso receive search requests from users, e.g., including brands,qualifiers, and/or other terms, and access the brand name database toprovide search results to the users. A clearing house may also beprovided for processing economic incentive payments to at least one ofbrandholders and brandbidders associated with brands in the brand namedatabase.

In accordance with another embodiment, a local computing device isprovided for a system including one or more remote computing devices, abrand name database including a plurality of brands and brandbidderinformation associated with respective brands, a search engine, and aclearing house interconnected by a network. The local computing devicemay include an interface communicating with the brand name database; acommunication interface for communicating with the one or more remotecomputing devices via the network for receiving search requestsincluding brands from users of the one or more remote computing devices;and a processor for extracting brands from search requests received fromthe users of the one or more remote computing devices, the processorcommunicating with the brand name database and receiving brandbidderinformation associated with the respective brands. The communicationinterface may also provide search results including the brandbidderinformation to the users of the one or more remote computing devices. Inaddition or alternatively, the processor or other component of thesystem may determine one or more economic incentive payments to thebrandholders and/or brandbidders based upon the brands included in thesearch requests.

In accordance with still another embodiment, a system is provided forconducting online searches using a brand that includes a brand namedatabase including a plurality of brands associated with respectivebrandholder and brandbidder information associated with respectivebrands, and a database manager including business rules for associatingbrandholders with respective brands and brandbidders with respectivebrands based upon the business rules. A search engine may communicatewith the brand name database for receiving and responding to brandrequests via a network. In one embodiment, the database manager may beconfigured for receiving a brandholder request from a brandholder to beassociated with a brand in the brand name database, applying thebusiness rules to the brandholder request to determine a level ofassociation of the brandholder with the brand, and allowing thebrandholder to provide input into associating brandbidder informationwith the brand.

In accordance with another embodiment, a method is provided forestablishing a brand name database including a plurality of brandsassociated with respective brandholders and brandbidder informationassociated with respective brands, and a search engine communicatingwith the brand name database for receiving and responding to brandsearch requests via a network. A brandholder request may be receivedfrom a brandholder to be associated with a brand in the brand namedatabase, and business rules of the brand name database may be appliedto the brandholder request to determine a level of association of thebrandholder with the brand, and the brandholder may be allowed toprovide input into associating brandbidder information with the brand.

In accordance with still another embodiment, a method is provided forestablishing a brand name database including a plurality of brandsassociated with respective brandholders and brandbidder informationassociated with respective brands, and a search engine communicatingwith the brand name database for receiving and responding to brandsearch requests via a network. A brandbidder request may be received tohave brandbidder information for the brandbidder associated with a brandin the brand name database, and business rules of the brand namedatabase may be applied to the brandbidder request to determine a levelof association of the brandbidder. Optionally, an economic incentivepayment may be provided to the brandholder and/or the brandbidder as aresult of revenues derived from one or more search terms including thebrand associated with the brandbidder when a brand search request isreceived by the search engine.

In accordance with yet another embodiment, a method is provided forconducting online searches using a brand name database including aplurality of brands and brandbidder information associated withrespective brands, and a search engine communicating with the brand namedatabase via a network. A search request may be received via the networkfrom a user that includes one or more brands, qualifiers, and/or otherterms. The brand name database may be searched for the brand andbrandbidder information associated with the brand, and search resultsmay be sent to the user via the network. The search results may includeinformation, such as brandbidder information associated with one or morebrandbidders associated with the brand. Optionally, an economicincentive payment may be provided to at least one of the brandholderassociated with the brand and at least one of the one or morebrandbidders associated with the brand based upon the search inquiry.

In accordance with still another embodiment, a method is provided forconducting online searches using a brand name database including aplurality of brands and brandbidder information associated withrespective brands, and a search engine communicating with the brand namedatabase via a network. A search inquiry may be received via the networkfrom a user that includes a brand and at least one qualifier. The brandname database may be searched for the brand and information associatedwith the brand and the qualifier, and search results may be sent to theuser via the network. The search results may include informationassociated with the brand and the qualifier, such as brandbidderinformation related to brandbidders who qualify to be included in thesearch results.

In accordance with yet another embodiment, a method is provided forproviding Internet search results from an Internet search engineaccessing a brand name database including business rules based at leastin part on input from brandholders and information associated withrespective brands. A search request may be received from an Internetuser, e.g., including one or more brands, qualifiers, and/or otherterms. The search request may be associated with the brand name databaseincluding the information, the business rules may be applied to thesearch request to determine search results from the information, and thesearch results may be provided to the Internet user.

In accordance with still another embodiment, a method is provided forcompensating brandholders who provide input related to deliveringInternet search results from an Internet search engine accessing a paidor bidded brand name database by providing economic incentive paymentsto the brandholders based on revenues derived from the brand namedatabase based on the brandholders' brands. A search request may bereceived from an Internet user that includes a brand, the search requestmay be associated with the brand name database, the business rules maybe applied to determine search results for the search request, and thesearch results may be provided to the Internet user. Optionally, thesearch results may be tracked and/or accounted for to apply a portion ofrevenues derived from the search request to an account of a brandholderassociated with the brand as an economic incentive payment. In additionor alternatively, the search results may be tracked and/or accounted foran amount paid by the brandbidder to be associated with the searchresults and/or reported the amount to the brandholder. For example, thebrandholder may provide an economic incentive payment to the brandbidderbased upon the search results and/or subsequent action by the user.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparentfrom consideration of the following description taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing showing a network architecture providingan exemplary embodiment of a brand search ecosystem.

FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing showing an exemplary embodiment of adatabase manager that may be included in the brand search ecosystem ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an exemplary embodiment of a method forprocessing requests from Brandholders to have their Brands included in abrand name database and to establish and/or track incentive programs.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an exemplary embodiment of a method forprocessing Paid Search bids from Bidders related to Brands included in abrand name database.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an exemplary embodiment of a method forprocessing Search Requests including a Brand using a brand namedatabase.

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing showing an exemplary embodiment ofincentive arrangements that may be provided in a brand search ecosystemand associated clearinghouse that may be provided in a brand searchecosystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

A number of factors described above surrounding Search Results and thecurrent Internet Search environment and ecosystem have combined torequire Brandholders to spend substantial resources to build and attainthe benefits of their Brands. These factors also have caused manyBrandholders substantial economic and other harm, both in the short andlong run, and both objectively measurable (e.g., having to pay a SearchEngine to be shown in Paid Search Results even when the sole search termis the Brand itself) and measurable and subjective and difficult tomeasure (e.g. the loss of sale, the short and long-term dilution of thevalue of the brand resulting from unauthorized persons, includingcompetitors, bidding on the Brand terms and thereby obtaining access toperson looking for the Brand or Branded Products).

The newness and significance of the existing Internet Search ecosystem,the openness, real-time, and micro-payment nature of payments made forPaid Results, and the Pay to Play nature of Paid Results ranking, whencombined with the significant legitimate and illegitimate economicpotential and incentives available to virtually any business, includingArbitrageurs, all combine to harm Brandholders and the value of theirBrands.

No one has devised an Internet Search ecosystem that effectivelyprotects, rewards, empowers, and/or incentivizes Brandholders to protecttheir Brands when Internet Users conduct Search Requests includingSearch Terms that include their Brands. For convenience, such Searchesfor Brands are referred to herein as a “Branded Search” or “BrandedSearches.” Search Results related to Branded Searches are referred to as“Branded Search Results,” and Search Terms including Brands are referredto as “Branded Search Terms.” In many cases, Brandholders areeffectively required to spend substantial sums with Search Companies tobuy Brand Search Terms that are identical or similar to their own Brandsjust to be seen when Internet Users are using their Brands as SearchTerms. Thus, Brandholders are actually incurring substantial expenses toobtain the full value of their Brand and Branded Products by having topay Search Companies just to be seen first or adequately when Internetusers are conducting a Branded Search.

Search Companies have made millions from Brandholders paying to beincluded in Paid Results when Internet Users conduct Branded Searchesusing their Brands. While many Brandholders are voluntarilyparticipating in this “Pay to Play” Paid Advertising system and aretherefore paying for their Brand Search Terms, they really have no otherchoice given the current Internet Search ecosystem if they want toprotect their Brand and want their Branded Products to be seen ifInternet Users conduct Branded Searches. Even more frustrating forBrandholders, if someone else pays more for the Brandholder's BrandedSearch Terms in this Pay to Play Paid Advertising system, they get morebenefit from the Brandholder's Brand than the Brandholder itself,possibly wrongfully intercepting the Internet User, usurping value fromthe Brandholder's Brand, and possibly diluting the value of the Brandboth inside and outside the Internet.

The issues, problems, and disadvantages of the current Internet Searchecosystem are not new and have plagued Brandholders for the last severalyears. Many companies have gone so far as to file litigation against themajor Search Companies to address many of these issues. Collectively,Brandholders have paid millions to Search Companies, which has resultedin billions in market capitalization for these Search Companies, just sothat the Brandholders Brands may be seen when Internet Users areconducting Branded Searches. One can easily conclude that these SearchCompanies and their shareholders have made millions at the cost andexpense of legitimate Brandholders who have been effectively forced tospend millions participating in this Pay to Play Paid Advertising systemjust to have their own Branded Products displayed in Branded SearchResults, not to mention other efforts to protect a Brand frominfringement and dilution.

Brandholders spend millions creating, building, and protecting theirBrands over many years and even decades. Brandholders spend enormoussums of money, time, and effort on product development, marketing,advertising, customer service, and legal costs to build, protect, andthen enjoy the economic benefits of their Brands. A strong argument canbe made that the entire effort of many businesses and even otherorganizations can be closely associated with increasing the value oftheir Branded Products and Brands, which can then be monetized in boththe short run and long-run through their businesses or other activities(e.g. philanthropic in the case of a charity).

There are numerous and pervasive problems in a Search Results ecosystemthat requires legitimate Brandholders to pay a bounty to SearchCompanies just to receive the full value of their own Brand identitythrough being included prominently in Branded Search Results whenInternet Users are conducting Branded Searches.

In addition to the problems associated with legitimate Brandholdershaving to pay Search Companies to have their websites and contentdisplayed in Paid Search Results, there are other problems forlegitimate Brandholders in the current Search Results ecosystem. Thefirst of these is the fact that others (e.g., Arbitrageurs,cyber-squatters, and even competitors) can Bid on a Brandholder'sspecific Brand and be seen when an Internet User conducts a BrandedSearch. And while Search Companies purport to make some efforts toprotect against this illegitimate abuse of the Search ecosystem, suchefforts are not particularly effective. As described above, in the shortrun, Search Companies have a tremendous disincentive to effectivelythwart illegitimate bidding on Brands under the Paid Advertising system.Not only would they presumably lose illegitimate Bidders, but thepresence of illegitimate Bidders may actually cause or requirelegitimate Bidders to pay more in the Paid Advertising system to ensurethat their Content is associated with their Brand. If there were onlyone legitimate Bidder in the Paid Advertising system and if allillegitimate Bidders were eliminated, then, in theory, at least thelegitimate Bidder would no longer be required to Bid to be seen.Interestingly, this is not necessarily a wrong result from an equitableor fundamental fairness point of view when one recognizes the ownershiprights of Brandholders in their Brands. However, one can easily see theramifications to the Search Companies if the Paid Advertising systemwere altered to the point that there were no illegitimate Biddersparticipating in the Paid Advertising system. Thus, asking the SearchCompanies to effectively police illegitimate Bidders and/or providelegitimate Brandholders more control over the use of their Brand may beagainst the economic interests of the Search Companies in the currentPaid Search environment.

The negative impact of the Paid Advertising system is exacerbated by themultiplier effect of the Paid Search Results system caused byArbitrageurs and others who are not providing any meaningful content intheir Search Results, but rather are attempting to get Internet Users totheir sites so that they will ultimately click on Paid Results on theirsite, thereby driving revenues to the Website Operator. Thus, PaidSearch Results often contain links that take Internet Users to sitesthat are designed primarily to get users to conduct other Paid SearchRequests or click on links provided in Paid Search Results. In somecases, it may take several Paid Search Results links to reach theunderlying original Content the Internet Users are seeking to ensurethat their Content is associated with their Brand.

Search Companies typically make money on all of these multiple clicksfrom the same Internet User who may click through several Internet sites(Arbitrageurs or not) before they find their way, if at all, to theoriginal Content they were seeking. This multiplier effect brings evenmore Bidders into the Bidding, thereby driving prices up further, andthereby causing Brandholders to pay even more for their Branded SearchTerms. Of course, again the Search Companies have little incentive tosolve this problem because they are beneficiaries of this inefficiencyand monetary infringement of the Brandholder's Brands as their totalrevenues and profits are driven up further and further as they receivemultiple and larger payments from advertisers in a Paid Search Resultsecosystem.

It is well known and recognized in most legal systems throughout theworld that Brandholders own their Brands and have a right to bar othersfrom wrongfully using their Brands. In fact, in the United States thefailure to adequately affirmatively protect a trademark may result inloss of the Brandholders' rights to their trademarks. Before thedevelopment of the Internet, Brandholders collectively spent millionsevery year to protect their Brands against infringers. The creation ofthe Internet and Internet Searches, and Paid Search Results inparticular, created entirely new economic incentives and frontiers forinfringers to wrongfully exploit Brandholders' Brands to the substantialdetriment of Brandholders. Brandholders have been unable to keep up, andthe current Internet Search ecosystem is arguably very negativelyimpacting a significant number of Brands.

Brandholders currently have no control over who Bids on their Brand andhow the Search Companies deliver Search Results for Branded SearchTerms. Legal and other rights and remedies have not proven effective andmay, in fact, ultimately be ineffective to protect the rights and valueof legitimate Brandholders in a Paid Search system. The various problemsassociated with Branded Search Terms range from relatively minor andinnocent errors to intentional and overt abuses of the Paid Advertisingmodel in efforts to wrongfully intercept Internet Users who are seekinginformation about, or the goods and services of Brandholders. Theseabuses may be initiated by a number of people, including those who donot have an wrongful motive but are nevertheless distorting Paid SearchResults at the cost of the Brandholder, and those who are intentionallyabusing the Pay-to-Play Paid Advertising system and who have essentiallyfound deficiencies and inefficiencies in the Paid Search Results and areexploiting them for their own economic gain at the cost of theBrandholders. Despite the cost and harm that Brandholders are enduringunder the current Paid Search Results ecosystem, to date, there has beenno effective alternative search ecosystem that attempt to solve ormitigate these issues.

In one embodiment, a Brand Search Ecosystem, or BSE may provideBrandholders with the ability to influence Organic Search Results and/orPaid Search Results by establishing new systems, controls, rules,economic incentives, and/or a clearinghouse of information, and/orauthorizations. The BSE may be designed to recognize legitimateBrandholders' rights in their Brands, provide economic resources toBrandholders to participate in and help administer the BSE, and/orprovide Brandholders new tools and techniques for building the value oftheir Brands and Branded Products, minimizing dilution and otherwiseprotecting and obtaining the value of their Brand.

A system that helps Internet Users find desired Brands and/or BrandedProducts when they are looking specifically for those Brands and/orBranded Products may help Internet Users more quickly obtain morerelevant Search Results related to those Brands and/or Branded Products.Such a system may also help them find Search Results when they are NOTlooking for Brands and/or Branded Products by NOT designating a Searchas one associated with the Brand and/or Branded Products and therebyavoiding all of the Search Results associated with the Brands and/orBranded Products.

Therefore, the BSE may be designed and/or practiced in ways that benefitboth Brandholders and Internet Users, and/or may be empowered with toolsthat can be used to fairly and appropriately balance the respectiveinterests and legitimate rights of Internet Users and Brandholders. Itmay do so in ways that provide that the operators of the BSE are moreneutral and have economic interests aligned with this balance and notalmost entirely with expanding and growing Paid Search Results.

Enlisting the support of legitimate Brandholders in this effort may alsoresult in better information about Branded Products being found moreeasily and/or quickly. The Brandholders' input may help its customersand/or potential customers quickly and easily find the desiredinformation, products, and/or services they are seeking. This mayprovide a significant benefit to Internet Users who today are oftenfrustrated in their efforts to quickly find legitimate information aboutBranded Products. Importantly, because the major Brands also generatemore products and services and therefore presumably more InternetSearches, the BSE may impact a large number of Internet Searches.

Historically and outside of the Internet, actions and activitiesassociated with protecting Brands may be controlled exclusively by theBrandholders, although license agreements may contain a variety of termsthat control and/or affect the licensees' rights to use or take actionsto protect or use the Brands. The BSE System may provide tools,interfaces, trafficking, and/or reporting tools to enable these types ofmarketing agreements and incentives to be applied, managed, andaccounted for through the Internet and the Internet Search ecosystem.

Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of asystem 8 for providing a Brand Search Ecosystem or “BSE,” e.g., forestablishing, searching, and/or otherwise using a brand name database52. The system 8 and related methods may be used in a Searchenvironment, e.g., where Brandholders have Input into and/or otherpartial control of the algorithms and business rules used to acquireinformation, prioritize, filter, display, and/or otherwise determine theinclusion and priority of BSE Search Results, e.g., incentivizing,authorizing, providing information, reviewing, or otherwise impactingthe way that Bidders appear in Search Results (collectively, “BSEAlgorithms”). The systems and methods described herein may also beapplicable in organic search and/or other environments. For example,Content may be displayed in accordance with the systems and methodsdescribed herein in the absence of Search Results or Advertising acrossany form of Media, Internet or otherwise.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system 8 includes various devices connected to anetwork 40, such as user devices 10, 20, 30, n, a database manager 50,and a search engine 60. In addition or alternatively, the system 8 mayalso include one or more brandholders 70, bidders 80, and/or clearinghouses 90 (one each shown for simplicity) connected to the network 40for interacting, tracking, recording, accounting, or otherwisecommunicating with the database manager 50 and/or search engine 60.

In one embodiment, the network 40 may be a wide area network (“WAN”), alocal area network (“LAN”), an intranet, a wireless network, a shortmessaging service (“SMS”), or a telephony network. For example, thenetwork 40 may incorporate several different types of networks includinga WAN, a LAN, and/or a wireless network; one such network includingmultiple different types of networks is the Internet.

Each of the user devices 10-n is a computing device, such as a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a mobile or cellular telephone, a personaldigital assistant (e.g., a Palm Pilot device, Blackberry device, and thelike), an interactive television, a vehicle navigation system, a kiosk,a lobby or elevator monitor, or other electronic device, capable ofcommunicating via the network 40. Generally, the user devices 10-n mayinclude one or more processors, memory and/or storage devices,communication interfaces, and/or user interfaces, e.g., a display,keyboard, mouse, and the like (all not shown). Users of the user devices10-n may interact with the search engine 60, e.g., submitting SearchRequests including one or more Brands, categories, products and/or otherSearch Terms, as described further below. Alternatively, in a non-searchenvironment, the user devices 10-n may be recipients of Content via thenetwork, e.g., based upon requests and/or other criteria.

The database manager 50 may include one or more computer systems, e.g.,servers, communicating with the brand name database 52, e.g., includingone or more processors, memory and/or storage devices, and communicationinterfaces for communicating via the network 40, e.g., with the searchengine 60, brandholder(s) 70, bidder(s) 80, and/or clearing house(s) 90.In addition or alternatively, the database manager 50 may communicatedirectly with the search engine 60, as represented by line 62, and/ormay be operated directly by or communicate directly with the clearinghouse(s) 90, in addition to or instead of via the network 40, asrepresented by line 92. The database manager 50 may include one or morehardware-based components and/or software-based modules for performingthe various functions related to the brand name database 52, asdescribed elsewhere herein. Although only one database manager 50 andsearch engine 60 are shown, it will be appreciated that multipledatabase managers and/or Search Engines (not shown) may be provided. Forexample, multiple Search Companies may operate independent SearchEngines, similar to search engine 60, that may have authority to accessand/or modify data in the brand name database 52 establish or influencerules of the database manager 50 and/or clearing house 90, dependingupon the rules of the system 8, as described elsewhere herein.

Turning to FIG. 2, an exemplary embodiment of a database manager 50 isshown that includes a communication interface 54, and one or moremodules and/or processors 56, e.g., a brand processor 56 a, bidprocessor 56 b, and incentive processor 56 c (which may include hardwareand/or software components), that communicate with the brand namedatabase 52. The communication interface 54 may allow data to betransferred between the processors 56 and/or brand name database 52 andexternal devices, networks, and the like. Examples of devices that maybe included in the communication interface 54 are one or more modems,network interfaces (for example, Ethernet cards), communications ports,PCMCIA slots and/or cards, wireless interfaces, such as infrared and/orradio frequency (RF) interfaces (such as those using the Bluetoothstandard), and the like. The communication interface 54 may manageincoming communications to determine the appropriate function to beperformed, and the modules and/or processors 56 may communicate asappropriate with the brand name database 52 based upon thecommunications and/or instruct the communication interface 54 to sendinformation to other devices, as described further elsewhere herein.

The brand name database 52 is a computer system capable of storingand/or serving up information, such as Brands, Brandholders associatedwith respective Brands, Bidders associated with respective Brands, andadditional optional information related to the Brands, Brandholders,and/or Bidders, or business rules and/or other information related toSearch Algorithms associated with delivering Search Results for SearchRequests incorporating Brands. In addition or alternatively, the brandname database 52 may store Qualifiers or other designators that may beassociated with one or more of the Brands, Brandholders, and/or Bidders.As used herein, “Brand” includes any term that may be used by the brandname database 52 to uniquely identify a product, good, service, orfunction, such as a trademark; a service mark; a trade name; anindividual's name, e.g., of a celebrity; an organization name; ageographic name, such as a state, city, or community; a fictitious name;a product or feature name or pseudo-name; a moniker; and the like(whether registered as trademarks, service marks, or otherwise legallyprotected or not). Also as used herein, “Qualifier” includes any termthat may be used to provide a trigger, categorize, and/or prioritizeSearch Requests and/or Search Results, such as categories of products(e.g., the International Classification systems used for trademarks),specific product names or types, geographic descriptors, temporaldescriptors, and the like. Brandholder may also include persons who havepurchased from Search Engines the exclusive or non-exclusive right tohave certain terms associated with their products and/or services inSearch Results even if those terms are not technically “owned” by theBrandholder.

Returning to FIG. 1, the brandholder(s) 70 and/or bidder(s) 80 mayinclude one or more computing devices, e.g., similar to the user devices10-n, and/or servers or other computer systems operated or maintained byBrandholders and/or Bidders. These may be specialized systems or devicesused exclusively to interact with the database manager 50 and/orclearing house(s) 90, or may be generalized systems or devices used bythe Brandholders and/or Bidders.

As used herein, “Brandholder” includes any source of products, e.g.,goods and services, that may be identified or otherwise associated withsuch products and one or more Brands, i.e., having legal, contractual,or other rights in the Brand(s), such as a top-level manufacturer,seller, reseller, and promoter of products, and may include entities,such as a company, an association, a trademark owner, a service markowner, an individual, such as a celebrity, advertisers, and the like.Brandholder may also include the persons who have purchased from SearchEngines the exclusive or non-exclusive right to have certain termsassociated with their products and services in Search Result even ifthose terms are not technically “owned” by the Brandholder. As usedherein, “Bidder” may include any entity that sells, resells, advertises,or promotes products associated with one or more Brands, other than theBrandholder. As used herein, “Branded Products” include anythinglegitimately related to a Brand, including websites, productinformation, marketing materials, store and other locations, parts,and/or goods and services associated with the Brand.

Generally, a Brandholder has legal and/or contractual rights or otherauthority over its Brands that may be identified and/or recognized in anobjective manner, e.g., as a trademark owner, creator, or purchaser. Abidder, however, does not have such rights or other authority over theapplicable Brands, or, if a Bidder has any such rights, they aresubordinate to and/or derived from the Brandholder. For example, in aPaid Search Results environment, a Bidder may bid to have itsinformation, e.g., address, URL, or other contact information, productofferings, and the like, associated with Search Results based upon aSearch Request including one or more Brands upon which the Bidder hasbid, as described further elsewhere herein. Alternatively, instead ofBidders, Content providers or other “Vendors” may replace Bidders asused herein, e.g., any entity that sells, resells, advertises, orpromotes products associated with one or more Brands, other than theBrandholder, but in a non-bidding environment. As described elsewhereherein, the database manager 50 and/or the clearing house 90 mayestablish business rules to identify and/or distinguish Brandholders andBidders, and/or to establish their rights and/or obligations within thesystem 8.

With continued reference to FIG. 1, the clearing house 90 may includeone or more institutions and/or schemes established for tracking,reporting, accounting for, and/or settling incentive and/or otherpayments via the network. For example, in one embodiment, the clearinghouse 90 may simply include one or more banks or other financialinstitutions that may maintain accounts for one or more of theBrandholders 70, Bidders 80, users of user devices 10-2, SearchCompanies operating the search engine 60, and the like. For example, theclearing house 90 may manage any credits, charges, payments, and/orother incentives provided to and/or from any of the participants in thesystem 8, e.g., providing periodic net credits, charges, payments,and/or other incentives to the participants, as described furtherelsewhere herein.

In addition or alternatively, the clearing house 90 may oversee at leastsome of the functions of the database manager 50, e.g., to establishand/or effectuate one or more business rules and/or guidelines,arbitration rules, incentive programs, search engine protocols, and thelike, also as described further elsewhere herein. In this alternative,the clearing house 90 may be associated with a consortium includingBrandholders and/or other members or affiliates, who may have input intothe business rules and/or functions related to the system 8.

Turning to FIGS. 3-5, exemplary methods will now be described of some ofthe functions that may be performed using the system 8 of FIG. 1 orother similar system. It will be appreciated that one or more of thesemethods may be included independent of the others to provide a desiredlevel of functionality in a brand search or other ecosystem, and thatthe steps described may be performed in different orders than theexamples provided and/or that some steps may be omitted, if desired.Further, the system 8 may involve performing many of these functions,e.g., involving many brandholders 70, bidders 80, users of devices 10-n,concurrently and/or independently of one another in response toparticular requests or other communications, e.g., received by thedatabase manager 50 and/or search engine 60. It will also be appreciatedthat any of the specific examples described elsewhere herein may beincluded, if desired, in any of the exemplary methods describedhereafter.

Turning first to FIG. 3, an exemplary method is shown for identifyingand including Brands and respective Brandholders in the brand namedatabase 52. At step 102, a request may be received from a party, suchas a brandholder 70 via the network 40 shown in FIG. 1, requesting to beassociated with a particular Brand. At step 104, the request may beprocessed, e.g., by the brand processor 56 a of FIG. 2, to decidewhether to associate the brandholder 70 with the Brand, and/or whetherthe brandholder 70 should have exclusive or non-exclusive inputregarding the Brand. The brand processor 56 a may apply predeterminedbusiness rules to determine whether the brandholder 70 qualifies to beexclusively associated the Brand and/or the various level(s) ofinput/control related to the Brand.

For example, the clearing house 90 may establish rules and/or guidelinesto provide substantially objective standards for identifying and/orassociating Brandholders and Brands, which may be implemented by thebrand processor 56 a. These may include identifying Brandholders who aremembers of the consortium overseeing the clearing house 90 and/orotherwise affiliated with the clearing house 90, identifyingBrandholders based upon third party standards, such as registeredtrademark and/or service mark owners, seniority (in time) ofincorporation and/or Brand use, and the like. The brand processor 56 amay automatically execute these rules and/or guidelines to determinewhether the brandholder 70 qualifies for inclusion in the brand namedatabase 52. Alternatively, one or more operators may review requestsbased upon the existing business rules and/or guidelines, e.g., manuallyand/or using a computer system coupled or otherwise communicating withthe database manager 50 and/or brand name database 52.

If the brand processor 56 a (or other operator) determines that thebrandholder 70 does not qualify, e.g., based upon an existingBrandholder already having rights to the Brand, the request may bedenied at step 106. The brandholder 70 may then be notified, e.g., viathe network 40 and/or other communication channel, of the decision.

Optionally, the rules and/or guidelines may include procedures forappealing a decision declining inclusion by the brandholder 70. Forexample, the clearing house 90 may include one or more managers, panels,committees, and/or other institutions for reviewing, and affirming orreversing decisions, e.g., again based upon the business rules and/orguidelines of the system 8.

At step 110, if the brand processor 56 a (or other decision maker)concludes that the brandholder 70 qualifies for inclusion in the brandname database 52, it may be determined whether one or more Qualifiersshould be associated with the Brandholder and the respective Brand. Forexample, two Brandholders in different markets may use similar oridentical Brands and need to be distinguished within the brand namedatabase 52.

At step 112, if no such Qualifier is required, the Brandholder and itsBrand may be added to the brand name database 52. Optionally, additionalinformation may be included in the brand name database 52 regarding theBrand, Branded Products, and/or Brandholder, e.g., SKUs, lists,descriptions of Branded Products, contact information, and/or one ormore optional Qualifiers. For example, the Brandholder may request (inthe original or subsequent requests) that certain Qualifiers beassociated with the Brandholder and/or the Brand to facilitatesubsequent use of the brand name database 52, such as multiple productcategories that the Brandholder may manufacture and/or sell, geographicdescriptors, e.g., based upon national and/or regional boundaries, andthe like. For example, such Qualifiers may also facilitate identifyingand/or prioritizing Bidders and/or may be included in Search Requests,as described further below.

At step 114, the brand processor 56 a may determine that a Qualifier isrequired before the Brandholder may be included in the brand namedatabase 52. For example, two Brandholders may both qualify for beingassociated with the same or similar Brands, e.g., although theBrandholders' respective products may be in different trades, markets,geographic regions, and the like. The rules and/or guidelines of theclearing house 90 may automatically determine and/or associate differentQualifiers with each of the Brandholders to distinguish them, such asproduct categories, geographic descriptors, and the like. In addition oralternatively, the Brandholders may voluntarily negotiate or mayarbitrate necessary Qualifiers to be associated with one or bothBrandholders and their Brands. Optionally, the institutions availablefrom the clearing house 90 may enable or otherwise facilitate suchnegotiations and/or arbitrations, e.g., to help resolve any conflictsbetween Brandholders to allow both Brandholders to participate in thesystem 8. If, however, no resolution can be reached, rules may exist toallow one Brandholder to be included and one excluded if necessary,e.g., based upon seniority in time and/or use of the Brand, first torequest participation in the system 8, and the like.

At step 116, the Brandholder, Brand, and necessary Qualifiers may beadded to the brand name database 52, optionally including additionalinformation, if desired, as described above.

Optionally, at step 118, Brandholders may pre-approve Bidders who mayrequest to be associated with their respective Brands. For example, therules and/or guidelines may provide the Brandholders with exclusiverights to authorize Bidders to be associated with their Brands.Alternatively, the Brandholders may have input less than exclusiverights to affect Bidders being associated with their Brands. Forexample, a Brandholder may pre-approve its authorized dealers or otheragents or representatives, and/or keep out direct competitors who maytry to draw search traffic away from the Brandholder. Alternatively, theBrandholder may pre-approve Qualifiers for Bidders, e.g., productcategories, geographic descriptors, and the like, e.g., to facilitatedistinguishing its dealers, etc. based upon appropriate factors. Inaddition or alternatively, the Brandholder may use incentives,subsidies, and the like to support desired Bidders, as described furtherbelow.

In addition or alternatively, at step 120 the Brandholder may establishincentive programs for itself, for relevant Bidders, and the like. Forexample, the clearing house 90 may establish optional and/or mandatoryincentive rules and/or plans, and the Brandholder may elect toparticipate in or define its level of participation in the availableplans, or even establish its own unique incentive program. FIG. 6, whichis described further below, shows examples of several incentive programsthat may be available in a brand search ecosystem, such as thosedescribed herein. Also as described further below, the incentivesinvolved may be financial or non-financial.

For example, as represented by line 310 in FIG. 6, Brandholders mayreceive incentives, e.g., payments from Search Companies 360, such asthe operator of the Search Engine 60 shown in FIG. 1. For example,multiple Search Companies may operate independent Search Engines,similar to Search Engine 60, e.g., in conjunction with or separate fromother Search Engines operated by other Search Companies. The SearchCompanies may pay incentives to the Brandholders based upon bids madeand paid by Bidders on the Brandholders' Brands, as described elsewhereherein. Also as described elsewhere herein, such payments or otherincentives may be monitored, recorded, maintained, and/or paid by theclearing house 90 or other agent, similar to other incentives describedherein.

In addition or alternatively, as shown by line 312, Brandholders mayprovide incentive fees, subsidies, co-op advertising funds, and the liketo Bidders 80, as shown in FIG. 6. For example, the Brandholders mayprovide incentives to their authorized dealers, advertisers, promoters,representatives, and the like to encourage the Bidders 80 to bid onSearch Terms to the Search Companies 360. Such incentives may be offeredto all qualifying Bidders 80, to only top tier Bidders 80, e.g., theBrandholders' top ten dealers, and the like, as desired.

Optionally, as shown in FIG. 6, the brandholder 70 may provideincentives 318 to users 10, e.g., to reward users who are loyalcustomers, and/or payments 320 to the clearing house 90, e.g., tosupport the services provided by the clearing house 90. These incentiveprograms may be provided at the brandholder's discretion or may berequired, e.g., as a supporting member or affiliate of the clearinghouse 90.

Returning to FIG. 3, once the incentive programs are established at step120, the appropriate information may be added to the brand name database52 and/or may be maintained by the clearing house 90, as desired.Optionally, the information may be submitted to the brand name database52 and/or clearing house 90 in one data transfer at the end ofprocessing or in several batches, e.g., after one or more individualsteps are completed. Such information may facilitate processing of bidsor other subsequent requests and/or communications from Bidders or otherparticipants in the system 8, as described further elsewhere herein.

Turning to FIG. 4, another exemplary method is shown for processing bidsfrom Bidders, e.g., using the bid processor 56 b shown in FIG. 2.Initially, at step 132, a request may be received from a Bidderrequesting to be associated with one or more Brands. Optionally, in aPaid Search environment, the request may be a Bid, i.e., including aBrand and a price that the Bidder is willing to pay to be associatedwith the Brand(s). The price may include a per-click-through bid, amaximum budget, and/or other values, similar to the examples describedelsewhere herein.

At step 134, the request may be processed to determine whether theBidder qualifies to be associated with the desired Brand. For example,in an environment where the Brandholder has the right to include andexclude Bidders, if the Bidder is not approved by the Brandholder, therequest may be declined at step 136. In addition or alternatively, otherfactors may be involved in deciding whether to include a Bidder andassociating the Bidder with the desired Brand. For example, in a PaidSearch environment, the Brandholders, Search Companies, and/or clearinghouse(s) may establish minimum bids and/or a maximum number of approvedBidders (e.g., approving only a certain number of Bidders) at any time.Optionally, in such an embodiment, a “waiting list” may be establishedfor Bidders that are beyond the established number of Bidders. Thus, therequest may be declined if the bid is too low, and/or if the maximumnumbers of approved Bidders is already met. The clearing house 90 ofFIG. 1 may also have rules and/or guidelines that may be implemented toinclude or exclude Bidders based upon various business rules, such asreputation, creditworthiness, membership in a consortium associated withthe clearing house 90, and the like. In addition or alternatively, theclearing house 90 may include one or more auditors, arbitrators, and thelike, to facilitate or review appeals or other issues arising fromBidders who are declined or limited in a manner the Bidders consideredimproper, similar to the institutions described above related toappeals, etc., for Brandholders who are declined.

At step 136, if a Bidder is approved, the Bidder's request may beprocessed further, e.g., to determine the Bidder's initialqualifications and/or authorizations. For example, the Bidder's requestmay include one or more Qualifiers that the Bidder may want associatedwith the Bidder to limit or qualify its inclusion in Search Results,such as geographic descriptors, product categories, and the like. As anexample, a Bidder on a Brand may only want to be included in SearchResults based upon a Search Request that includes the Brand alone orthat includes the Brand but excludes some geographic regions (e.g., aBidder engaged in business only in California may include Brand X andexclude if NOT California, if the Bidder wants to be excluded fromSearch Results that include a state or other geographic descriptoroutside California).

In addition, the Bidder may establish a budget, e.g., that the Bidderwill pay for the thousand click-throughs, or up to ten thousand dollars($10,000), and the budget information may be included in the brand namedatabase 52. Thus, during subsequent processing of Search Requests, asdescribed elsewhere herein, the Bidder's budget may be reviewed beforeincluding the Bidder in Search Results, and the Bidder may designatethat any such budget may be applied with or without regard to any EIPspayable to the Bidder from time to time.

At step 140, the bid processor 56 b may determine the Bidder'seligibility for one or more incentive programs and/or determine theBidder's level of participation. For example, if the Bidder is on anapproved dealer list for the Brandholder, the Bidder may be eligible foran EIP or other BSE Incentive from the Brandholder. As describedelsewhere herein, such BSE Incentives may allow the Bidder to increaseits bid above that of other Bidders, e.g., to increase the Bidder'spriority in Search Results. The BSE Incentive may be applied to theBidder at the time of processing or subsequently, e.g., upon chargingthe Bidder for inclusion in Search Results, or determined by eventssubsequent to the bidding by the Bidder or the click-through thatresults in the payment obligation of the Bidder. Optionally, the Biddermay also decide to participate or be required to participate inproviding incentives or other payments to other participants. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 6, bidders 80 may provide incentives 322 tousers 10, e.g., based upon loyalty, purchases, or other factors, and/ormake payments 324 to the clearing house 90.

At step 142, the information related to the Bidder, its bid, itsparticipation in incentive programs, and the like may be added to thebrand name database 52. The information may be added upon completion ofthe preceding steps, as shown, or may be added as one or more individualsteps are completed. In addition or alternatively, at least some of theinformation may be communicated to the clearing house 90, e.g., toestablish an account for the Bidder, e.g., for processing incentivepayments, bid payments, and the like, as described elsewhere herein.

At step 144, the database manager 50 and/or search engine 52 may performone or more functions involving the Bidder's information when SearchRequests are received and/or processed. For example, the Bidder's bidand status may be compared to other bidders at the time a Search Requestis received to determine the Bidder's inclusion and/or priority inSearch Results. For example, if since the Bidder's original bid, anotherbidder has placed a higher bid that removes the Bidder from the topnumber of bidders authorized to be included in Search Results, theBidder may be excluded from the Search Results. Alternatively, if theBidder's budget has been exceeded, the Bidder may also be excluded fromthe Search Results. Optionally, when these events occur, a notice may besent to the bidder 70, e.g., via the network 40, as shown in FIG. 1, orother communication path, of the event. This may provide the Bidder withthe opportunity to submit a new bid, e.g., increasing its bid priceand/or budget, which may be processed beginning at step 132, asdescribed above. Thus, the receipt and processing of bids, and/orinclusion in Search Results may occur dynamically during operation ofthe system 8.

Turning to FIG. 5 with additional references to FIG. 1, an exemplarymethod is shown for processing Search Requests including Brands, e.g.,to determine and/or provide appropriate Search Results. At step 152, aSearch Request may be received, e.g., by the search engine 60 of FIG. 1from a user device 10 via the network 40. The Search Request may includeat least one Brand, and the Search Request may include otherinformation, e.g., one or more Qualifiers. For example, user device 10may access the search engine 60 via the Internet or other network 40,e.g., accessing a webpage presented by the search engine 60. The webpagemay include a space for the user to enter search terms, e.g., in afree-form manner. Alternatively, the webpage may include multiplespaces, e.g., one space for entering a Brand, and another space forentering one or more (optional or required) Qualifiers. In a furtheralternative, a multiple choice menu, pulldown menu, or other interfacemay be presented to the user, e.g., to facilitate entering one or moreQualifiers. It will be appreciated that a variety of interfaces may beprovided to users to facilitate initiating a Search Request.

At step 154, the Search Request may be processed to determine whetherthe Search Request includes a Brand existing within the brand namedatabase 52. If no Brand is included in the Search Request or if theidentified Brand does not exist within the brand name database 52, amessage may be sent to the user at step 156. Optionally, the user may beprovided with another opportunity to enter a Brand, e.g., returned tostep 152 as shown, may be provided with a list of one or more Brandssimilar to the term included in the Search Request, depending upon theSearch Algorithms used by the search engine 60, or may be providedSearch Results without regard to the special features of the BSE.

At step 158, if a Brand existing in the brand name database 52 isidentified in the (initial or subsequent) Search Request, the searchengine 60 may determine whether the Search Request includes one or moreQualifiers. If no Qualifier is included in the Search Request, at step160, the search engine 60 may determine whether a Qualifier is required.For example, as described elsewhere, multiple Brandholders may haverights to the same or similar Brands, and Qualifiers may be required todistinguish the Brandholders. If no Qualifier is required, the searchengine 60 may process the Search Request to obtain Search Results, e.g.,using the procedures described further below.

If, however, the search engine 60 determines that one or more Qualifiersabsent from the Search Request but are required, at step 162, the searchengine 60 may request further information from the user. For example,the search engine 60 may simply request that the user provide additionalterms, e.g., products, geographic descriptors, and/or other terms tofurther refine the search, or one or more menus may be provided to theuser, e.g., including a list of optional Brandholders having rights inthe Brand, and/or a list of Qualifiers for the user to select. Theinterface for such a request for additional information may be similaror different from the interface provided for the initial Search Request.

At step 164, the additional information received from the user may beprocessed to confirm that it includes an appropriate Qualifier. If theinformation does not provide sufficient information, the user may bereturned to step 162 and/or may be provided with a list of possibleoptions responsive to the Search Request, e.g., a list of possibleBrandholders having rights in the Brand.

At step 166, once one or more appropriate Qualifiers or additionalinformation is received (or no Qualifier is needed, e.g., at step 160),the search engine 60 may access the brand name database 52 to retrieveinformation responsive to the Search Request. Optionally, all of thisinformation may be provided to the user as a Search Response. Theinterface and/or other presentation of the information may be in anyuseful or desirable format. For example, each piece of information mayinclude a description, geographic location identifier, and/or a URL ofthe Bidder or the Bidder's stores, e.g., including an active icon thatmay clicked to forward the user directly to a website or other locationassociated with the Bidder.

Alternatively, at step 168, the information from the brand name database52 may be prioritized and/or edited before being provided to the user.For example, in a Paid Search environment, information may be rankedbased upon the amount bid by Bidders, e.g., such that the Search Resultsinclude the highest Bidders first or Bidders whose budgets have beenexhausted are omitted. In addition or alternatively, in an environmentwhere the Brandholder has authority over information associated with itsBrand, information from authorized Bidders or Vendors may be provided,either before other information or exclusive of other information. Inaddition or alternatively, other Search Algorithms may be applied, e.g.,if the Search Request includes one or more Qualifiers that need to beanalyzed before providing the Search Results. For example, if the SearchRequest includes a geographic descriptor, e.g., a location where theuser is or intends to be, the information associated with the Brand maybe ranked based upon proximity to the location. The information may thenbe sent or otherwise presented to the user as the Search Results.

In addition, at step 170, any incentives applicable to the SearchRequest may be processed, e.g., before, while, or after, providing theSearch Results to the user. For example, with additional reference toFIG. 6, if the user selects a Bidder, e.g., by clicking through to aBidder's website, a payment may be made to the Brandholder, e.g., asshown at 310. The payment may be based upon the rules of the clearinghouse 90 and/or an arrangement between a Search Company operating thesearch engine 60 and the Brandholder, as described previously. Inaddition or alternatively, the selected Bidder may make a payment to theSearch Company and/or to the Brandholder, e.g., a per click bid price tothe Search Company, as shown at 326. In addition or alternatively, theBrandholder may make a payment to the selected Bidder, such as an EIP orother BSE Incentive, or other payment to an authorized or favored Biddershown at 312, e.g., based upon the programs established by the clearinghouse 90 and/or between the Brandholder and the Bidder.

Any such payments may be made directly from the payer to the payee.Alternatively, the payments may be made to and/or from the clearinghouse 90, and/or may simply be acknowledged, recorded, and/or monitoredby the clearing house 90, e.g., in the appropriate participants'accounts as shown at 316, 320, 324, 328. The clearing house 90 may thenperiodically reconcile participants' accounts, e.g., making netpayments, charges, and the like.

Optionally, if the incentives include the user, the incentives may beprovided to the user 10 at 318, 322, and/or 330. Such incentives mayinclude a cash payment, a discount on an existing or future purchase,and the like.

Although not discussed during the methods above, other third partyparticipants may also be involved in the methods and/or transactionsdescribed above. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, one or more SEMsand/or SEOs may be involved, e.g., acting on behalf of Bidders 80. Forexample, the SEMs and/or SEOs may process bid requests and/or paymentsfor Bidders 80 directly or through the BSE Clearinghouse, e.g., as shownat 336. Bidders 80 may pay the SEMs and/or SEOs in advance or afterbeing included in Search Results, upon receiving subsidies or otherincentives from Brandholders, and the like, as shown at 334.

Overview of the Brand Search Ecosystem

As can be seen from the foregoing, the systems and methods describedherein may provide Brandholders with input and/or control over SearchResults involving their Brands. What now follows are examples of a BrandSearch Ecosystem or BSE that may be used to perform one or more of thefeatures described above. The BSE may provide Brandholders additionaltools and/or an integrated system to protect and/or have Input regardingthe use of their Brands in an Internet Search environment. It may allowBrandholders to participate in the economic value of their Brands and/ormay provide tools allowing them to control, protect, incent, allocate,and otherwise work with their Brands' authorized licensees,distributors, resellers, service companies, and the like to legitimatelypromote, assist in providing more relevant search results, and/orprotect their Brands in the Internet Search ecosystem. Certain aspectsof the BSE may work with all types of Internet Search and contextualadvertising outside of search, and certain aspects may apply more toOrganic Search Results and some aspects may apply more to Paid Resultsand contextual advertising.

In the BSE, Paid Search Results may not be limited to Search Resultsdetermined only by Brandholders, but rather by the Search Companies,Brandholders and/or other stakeholders in the Brands. LegitimateBrandholders may have input into the Search Algorithms associated withboth Organic Search Results and/or Paid Search Results, and/or otherrelated factors, including what companies are authorized to place Bidson Search Terms, the ranking and display of Search Results, and/orvarious other rules and formulas in the Search Algorithms.

A Brandholder that owns a Brand certainly owns the right to protect theBrand and accordingly may have the primary input into the use of theBrand. However, there may also be various other legitimate users of theBrand, such as licensees, people who sell used products or replacementsparts for Branded Products, etc. (e.g., Ford dealers, Ford automotiverepair shops, etc. and others.). Under the BSE, however, Brandholdersmay be entitled to establish certain parameters and/or limitations onwhich companies may Bid on Branded Search Terms. The nature and extentof these parameters and limitations may be determined as the BSE evolvesand is deployed.

BSE Search Alliance

In order to further the cause for the BSE and/or to help fairlyimplement various aspects of the BSE, the BSE may include the formationand/or association with one or more new, non-profit trade associations(the “Trademark Search Associations”), which may be responsible or havethe power to undertake various actions and activities designed toprotect the interests of Brandholders, Internet Users, Advertisers,and/or other participants in the BSE. The Trademark Search Associationsmay provide various functions related to the BSEs, including assistingin establishing rules and structure for the system, promoting andoperating the system, conflict resolution, etc. and such TrademarkSearch Associations may specialize for certain industries.

Specific Proposals that May be Included in the BSE

This description has outlined the background and rationale for the BSE,as well as some of the objectives and premises of the BSE. Set forthbelow are various specific proposals, one or more of which may beincluded in the BSE that may help efficiently meet the objectives and/orprovide BSE Participants with the tools and systems necessary to achievethose objectives.

1) To minimize or eliminate ambiguity or doubt, Internet Users may beable to affirmatively designate that they want to conduct a searchrequest in, or have the Search Results affected by, the BSE through theuse of a tab, radial button, the selection of a BSE identified SearchRequest box itself, the use of a special term or identifier in theSearch Terms, and/or some other methodology.

2) Various Search Terms and/or Search Logic Terms may be used toautomatically identify that Internet Searches are intended or need tohave the Search Results affected by or conducted with the brand searchbenefits of the BSE. Typically, these words may be treated as automaticaffirmative designation by the Internet User to “opt in” to the BSEinstead of the normal Internet Search system.

3) Various categories and/or other terms included in Search Terms may beused as triggers and/or interpreted to mean that the User would preferto have Search Results from, or affected by the BSE.

4) Whether or not Search Companies utilize the BSE to deliver or impactSearch Results may be determined by any and all parameters available aspart of the context of the Search Request that may be known ordetermined from any source, including the platform upon which the SearchRequest is made, the Search Terms included in the Search Request, thetime of day, the history of the User and the User's prior Searches, theimmediately past and historically tracked searches and clicks of theUser, the nature of the content related to the Search, and/or any othercontextual information available to, or deliverable by, the BSE(collectively “Search Context”).

5) In addition to using the Search Context to determine whether or notto utilize the BSE, the Search Context may be considered in determiningand impacting Search Results under the BSE.

6) Brandholders may have input and/or control over the business rulesand Search Algorithms used to determine Organic Search Results and/orPaid Search for Branded Searches for certain Brands (i.e., searches thatuse Search Terms including their Brands), including but not limited toa) determining business rules, systems, and/or formulas that determinewhich categories of businesses and/or specific businesses (“AuthorizedBrand Licensees” or “Authorized Brandbidders”) are authorized to Bid onBranded Search Terms including a Brandholder's Brands, b) establishingbidding minimums and/or maximums for Branded Search Terms or requiringlinks from Branded Search Terms to link to certain types of Contentspecifically related to the Branded Search Terms, etc., c) variousrules, systems, and/or formulas to limit, impact, or allocate the natureof the Branded Search Terms or EIPs (defined elsewhere herein) that areavailable to any specific Authorized Brandbidder or specific categoriesof Authorized Brandbidders that are authorized to Bid on Branded SearchTerms and/or d) various rules, systems, and/or formulas included inSearch Algorithms that take into account words, tags, or other factorscontrolled or impacted by Brandholders in determining the inclusionand/or ranking of Content in Organic Search Results or Paid SearchResults. These examples may be used alone or together to provideBrandholders with BSE Input capability.

7) Placing, monitoring and/or reporting restrictions on the products andservices that may be sold on the websites that are advertised throughthe use of Branded Search Terms, including requiring the actualmonitoring of sales of the Branded Products and/or the sales of other,non-Branded products on the websites or properties of AuthorizedBrandbidders.

8) Brandholders may be given access to certain information, either on anAdvertiser by Advertiser basis or perhaps in a way that the Brandholdermay only see aggregated or based on “blind” reporting of informationthat is sensitive or otherwise should not be shared between BSEParticipants. To achieve this objective, various aspects of the BSE maybe performed, tracked, and/or reported on a blind or double blind basisby the operators of the BSE, trade associations or other organizationsas a trusted agent for all participants.

9) The BSE may include a variety of economic incentives (“EconomicIncentives”) that may be paid to/from various BSE Participants. The term“BSE Participants” may include Search Companies, Brandholders, SEMs,SEOs, Advertisers, Affiliates, Website Operators, Branded Bidders,Internet Users, other users, and/or any person or entity that has reasonto participate directly or indirectly in the BSE. A diagram of some ofthe various BSE Participants and some of the various Economic Incentivesis shown in FIG. 6. Brandholders may be entitled to participate in aportion of the income received by Search Companies for Paid Advertisingon their Branded Search Terms and/or other Search Terms related to,associated with, or included with Branded Search Terms in Brand SearchRequests. These EIPs to the Brandholder may be completely unrestrictedor may be required to be used for certain types of activities.Alternatively, these Economic Incentives may be required to be orotherwise allocated to reserves, holding accounts and other tracking andaccounting approaches (collectively “Reserves”), which may require thatthe funds be available for use in the future pursuant to variousagreements between Brandholders, Search Companies, Authorized BrandLicensees, etc. The Reserves may also be used to secure ongoingobligations of the various BSE Participants in the BSE and/or to ensurecontinuing compliance with the various ongoing obligations of BSEParticipants.

10) Brandholders may be authorized to provide financial incentivesand/or subsidies to Authorized Brandbidders or others authorized to Bidon Search Terms including the Brandholder's Brands.

11) Brandholders may be able to designate that a portion of Bids made byan Authorized Bidder be paid for or subsidized by the Brandholders tothe Search Companies directly (whether credited to the account of anAuthorized Brandbidder or not) or offset against any EIP otherwise duethe Brandholders, or Brandholders may be able to subsidize Bids placedby Authorized Brandbidders, either by paying the amounts directly to theSearch Companies or paying such amounts to the Authorized Brandbidderdirectly.

12) Any Economic Incentive or other payments or incentives provided by aBrandholder may be based on a flat fee per bid or based specifically onsubsidizing Bids and Paid Search Fees paid to one or more specificSearch Companies by an Authorized Brandbidder on a subsidy per Bid,percentage of Bid, or any other basis. For example, a Brandholder andAuthorized Brandbidder may agree that a flat fee per Bid EIP may beadjusted based on how much the Authorized Brandbidder Bids or pays onthe Brandholder's Brands compared to how much the Brandbidder bids orpays on Search Terms associated with the competitors of the Brandholder.

For example, Brandholder X may agree to a standard Paid Search ResultEIP for Authorized Brandbidders A and B of $1.50 per Bid payment on theBrandholder's Brands. Alternatively, the Brandholder and the AuthorizedBrandbidders may agree to adjust the EIP based on the ratio of eachBrandholder's Bids for the Brandholder's Brands compared to suchBrandholder's Bids for the Brands of the Brandholder's competitors. So,if ninety percent (90%) of the total Bid payments for Brandbidder A arefor the Brandholder's Brand and only thirty percent (30%) of the totalBid Payments for Brandbidder B are for the Brandholder's Brands, thenBrandbidder A's EIP percentage or amount may be adjusted higher thanBrandbidder B's adjusted EIP.

13) The BSE may provide for the establishment, tracking, monitoring,controlling, accounting, and/or adjusting of the various EIPs and otherpayments and subsidies payable to or from any Participant.

14) All of the various EIPs, authorizations, tracking, and/or otheroperational features of the BSE may be accounted for in an accountingand tracking system (the “BSE Clearinghouse”) that may serve as aclearinghouse for authorizing, trafficking, tracking, reporting, and/oraccounting all aspects of the BSE, e.g., on a real-time basis, includingthe licensing and authorizing of Authorized Brandbidders and/or any BSEIncentives, including EIPs due and payable to/from any BSE Participant.BSE Participants may have the ability to track, monitor, alter, approve,and/or obtain any terms, descriptions, images, etc. and otheradvertising or promotional information (collectively, “Creative”) on allaspects of the BSE relative to their authorized Brands through the BSEClearinghouse, e.g., on a real-time basis through web interfaces orother means, including EIPs provided by Brandholder to AuthorizedBrandbidders, and the total advertising fees paid by a Brandbidder maybe credited, reimbursed, or otherwise accounted for in the BSE.

15) The BSE Clearinghouse system may detect and account for varioustypes of goods and services associated with the Brand and Content of BSEParticipants related to the Brands, including Internet and non-Internetsales of Branded Products. Similarly, the BSE Clearinghouse may detectand account for various non-BSE economic or other incentives related tothe Brands, including promotions, rebates, coupons, non-Internet andInternet co-op advertising funds and incentives, and the like.

16) Organic Search Results may also be impacted from the variouscomponents of the BSE, including altering the BSE Search Algorithms toconsider any Brand information from the Brandholder and AuthorizedBrandbidders.

17) The BSE may be used to establish, monitor, and/or report on BrandedSearch Terms and other Search Terms being Bid upon and/or purchased bycertain categories or characterizations of all BSE Participants, and theBSE may track ratios and portions of various similar or competitiveBidded, non-bidded, or combined Bidded or non-bidded Search Terms beingbidded or used by BSE Participants in the BSE.

18) The BSE may have various methods of reporting, monitoring, and/oradjusting BSE Incentives, including voluntary systems whereby AuthorizedBrandbidders agree to disclose and report on all Bidded Terms.

19) The BSE may involve one or more series of rules and regulations towhich all BSE Participants may be required to be subject to, oralternatively that Brandholders and Authorized Brandbidders may agree tobe subject to. It is anticipated that there may be numerous approval,review, and/or dispute resolution processes and systems in place,involving committees and panels that may be able to address, mediate,and/or arbitrate various disputes, whether arising from conflicts amongBrands, Search Companies, Authorized Brandbidders, or others.

20) The BSE may also involve the establishment of guidelines, standards,and/or systems designed to assist Search Companies in finding the mostrelevant Brand and Branded Products information to be included in bothOrganic Search Results and Paid Search Results with standardizedinterfaces and XML language interfaces to allow any BSE Participant tointerface with the BSE, the BSE Clearinghouse, and/or other BSEParticipants. This may assist Search Companies in determining whichpages to crawl, or using specialized systems for BSE Participants forcrawling to obtain information from BSE Participant's websites,appropriate optimized indexing of information to take into account BSEfactors, and/or inclusion or prioritization of Search Results to providemore targeted and relevant Search Results for both Organic SearchResults and Paid Search Results.

21) The BSE may also be used to assist Brandholders and AuthorizedBrandbidders to distribute appropriate information about BrandedProducts through a standardized and open architecture which,importantly, may have all of the functionality of the BSE associatedwith such information.

22) All of the various Economic Incentives may be offset and nettedagainst other Economic Incentives or amounts due to or from BSEParticipants.

23) Paid Search Results and other relationships among BSE Participantsmay be effected through the BSE Clearinghouse directly without goingthrough Search Companies, and Economic Incentives may be paid directlyto or from any BSE Participants, including payments from Brandholders toAuthorized Brandbidders, Internet Users, Website Operators, InternetUsers, Content providers, etc. in ways that do not require the SearchCompanies to act as intermediaries. For example, Brandholders mayprovide EIPs directly to BSE Participants for the placement of links ortags on a BSE Participant's website, and BSE Participants may provideincentives to Internet Users to place certain tags or links on their ownsites or to establish a Brandholder's Brand as a preference to encouragerepeat usage of Brandholder's sites or Branded Searches.

EXAMPLES Example 1—Economic Incentive Payments to Brandholder

An auto manufacturer with a prominent brand, e.g. Toyota, decides toallocate a portion of its internal and external search marketing effortsto work with one or more BSE Search Companies. The following table setsforth an example of certain Brands, Per Search Amounts (amount paid by aBrandholder to a Brandbidder on a per search click-through basis) andPer Search Percentages (amount paid by a Brandholder to a Brandbidder asa percentage of the amount bid by the Brandbidder to be included inSearch Results) that Toyota and a BSE Search Company (an entityoperating a BSE Search Engine) might agree upon for the various Brandsto be covered by the BSE Algorithm and any EIPs for each brand. The BSESearch Company and Toyota may agree that the BSE Search Engine will payan EIP to Toyota equal to the greater of the Per Search Amount or thePer Search Percentage for any amounts bid and earned on any BSE PaidSearch Revenues incorporating one or more Toyota Brands (“Non-ExclusiveBrand Searches”) (e.g., Toyota Car Dealer, Toyota Trucks, etc.), and adifferent Per Search Amount or Per Search Percentage for any amounts bidand earned on any BSE Search Revenues for paid searches incorporatingONLY one or more of the Toyota Brands (e.g., Toyota, 4Runner, or Toyota4Runner), thereby providing more consideration to Toyota when BSE usersuse Toyota's brand exclusively in their search. In addition, the BSESearch Engine and the Brandholder may agree upon the maximum EIPs forthese types of searches.

The following table illustrates a few potential scenarios for EIPpayments:

Non-Exclusive Brand Search Multiple Brand Search Exclusive Brand Search(e.g., Toyota car, (Toyota 4Runner, (e.g. Toyota, 4Runner) 4Runner newcar) Toyota Camry) Min. Pcnt. Max. Min. Pcnt. Max. Min. Pcnt. Max.Search Search Search Search Search Search Search Search Search BrandAmt. Amt. Amt. Amt. Amt. Amt. Amt. Amt. Amt. Main Brand: Toyota $.50 40%$1.50 $.25 25% $.75 $.50 50% $3 Products: 4Runner $.15 25% $3 $.05 10%$1 $.25 30% $5 Corolla $.50 40% $1.50 $.25 25% $.75 $.50 50% $3 Camry$.15 25% $3 $.05 10% $1 $.25 30% $5 Product Features: Vehicle $.15 25%$3 $.05 10% $1 $.25 30% $5 Stability Control ™

The relevant Paid Search Revenues may be based on the number of timesthat BSE Brandbidders bid on the foregoing Brands and the Paid SearchRevenues generated by the Search Company on these Brands, and the BSESearch Company may ultimately pay Toyota an amount based on the quantityand pricing of click-throughs pursuant to the agreed upon EIPformula(s). Such payments may be in the form of cash and/or a creditagainst future Brandbidding by Toyota, or any other economic ornon-economic incentive.

This EIP may presumably bear some correlation to the value of the Brand,which is logical and equitable insofar as the Brandholder owns theBrand. Further, the economics of the payments may also have somecorrelation to the value of the products and services associated withthe Brand, and the propensity of end users to be looking for, andclicking Search Results related to, such Brand. A Brand that is not veryvaluable will not yield a very large EIP, nor will it generate much BSErevenues or EIPs. Conversely, a valuable Brand may presumably generatemore Paid Search revenue related to the Brand, and thus the holder of avaluable Brand may be entitled to and presumably earn larger EIPs.

Example 2—Economic Incentive Payments to Brandbidders

Continuing with the example of Toyota as a Brandholder, the Brandholdermay agree to pay EIPs to various authorized dealers, resellers,customers, parts suppliers, and the like as Brandbidders, that wereactively bidding on Branded Search Terms using the Toyota Brands. Thismay be logical and/or equitable because Toyota has a significanteconomic incentive to drive end users to Toyota authorized dealers,parts suppliers, and the like, and to encourage those authorizedBrandbidders to bid on these terms and to incent them to bid higher inorder to increase the probability of a successful bid that may driveconsumers searching for Toyota Brands and Toyota Branded Products to theContent of authorized Brandbidders, thereby presumably ultimatelyallowing Toyota to sell more products, build more customer awareness andsatisfaction with the Brand, etc. For example, Toyota may agree to payits authorized dealers an EIP on any BSE search incorporating one ormore Toyota Brand Names (e.g., Toyota Car Dealer, Toyota Trucks, etc.)equal to the greater of fifty cents ($0.50) or twenty-five percent (25%)of the amounts bid by the Brandbidder on any BSE search revenuesincorporating one or more Toyota Brand Names (e.g., Toyota Car Dealer,Toyota Trucks, etc.), and the greater of one dollar ($1.00) or fortypercent (40%) of the amounts bid on any Branded Search Term that wasexclusively a Toyota Brand (e.g., Toyota, 4Runner, or Toyota 4Runner).Toyota and the Brandbidder may agree to different BSE Incentives,including EIPs for various Brands on different BSE Search Companies toprovide maximum flexibility.

Example 3—Automated and Real-Time Input from Brandholders

Virtually all Brandholders, whether they are commercial enterprises(e.g., Toyota), individuals (e.g., Madonna), or alliances andorganizations (e.g., Chambers of Commerce) operate their own website(s)and utilize these websites for the organization, acquisition, and/ordistribution of information related to their products and Brands. Theymay spend a great deal of time and effort updating the information ontheir website(s), potentially utilizing SEOs and SEMs, to ensure thatthe website(s) are found in Search Results, and obtaining and handlingmore visitors and traffic.

In many cases, the Brandholders may provide extensive and detailedinformation about their products (e.g., operating manuals, operationalguidance, replacement parts, etc.) and/or locations (e.g., stores, storehours, products and services available at the store, inventory,specials, etc.). This information may be voluminous and extremelydynamic and detailed, yet it may often be the best source of informationabout the Brandholders' products available at any given time. Because ofthe accuracy and/or depth of this information, Search Companies mayagree with the Brandholder that the Search Engine can crawl the websitein special ways on a daily or more frequent basis to ensure that theinformation contained in the Search Engine database is the most accurateand complete information available. Alternatively, the Search Engine maybe provided discrete access to portions of information on theBrandholder's website that may be accessed directly on a real-time basisfor inclusion in Search Results.

In order to control the Content on the website and/or to ensure that theBrandholder obtains the benefits (economic and otherwise) of thisContent on an exclusive basis, and/or to ensure that othernon-authorized companies do not crawl the website to obtain thisinformation for unauthorized use, the Brandholder may also structure itswebsite or portions of its website in ways to ensure that othernon-authorized website crawlers or systems are unable to gain access tothis information. Thus, the BSE Search Companies that work directly withthe Brandholder may have an advantage in their ability to deliver morerelevant search results to Internet Users. In order to compensate theBrandholder for this effort and to provide them the benefit of theirBrand and information, the Search Companies may agree to provide BSEIncentives to the Brandholder or otherwise alter their Search Algorithmsin various ways agreed upon between the Brandholder and the SearchEngine, and the Brandholder and the Search Engine may further agree toprovide BSE Incentives to authorized Brandbidders pursuant to the BSE.

Example 4—EIPs and Other Provisions Regarding Similar or IdenticalBrands

There are certain Brands that are the same or similar but typicallyrelate to different products. For example, Waterford is a brand used andtrademarked by both a company that makes crystal and a company that ownsand leases apartment buildings. Because of the similarities in theBrand, the BSE Algorithm may incorporate various systems and/or businessrules to attempt to arbitrate searches and/or to arbitrate issues amongthe Brandholders in order to deliver to end users the most appropriateresponses and/or maintain the integrity and efficacy of the BSE system.

For example, EIPs may be established among Brandholders of variousidentical or similar Brands and BSE Search Companies, and these EIPs maybe different for each product category. In the forgoing example, the EIPfrom the BSE Search Engine to the Brandholder for Waterford crystal maybe the greater of fifty cents ($0.50) and twenty five percent (25%),with a maximum of four dollars ($4.00), and/or the EIP from the BSESearch Engine to the Brandholder may be the greater of two dollars andfifty cents ($2.50) and fifty percent (50%), with a cap of twentydollars ($20), partially because of the size of the expected bids andclick-through for apartments vs. crystal, and partially because of theexpected volume and/or size of bids for Waterford apartments vs.Waterford crystal. In addition, BSE Search Companies and Brandholders ofsimilar Brands may agree to deliver search results based on the natureof the terms searched (Waterford stemware vs. Waterford real estate) ora variety of other contextual factors that may be appropriate—geography,time of day, personal or other information regarding the user (e.g.,demographic information, etc.) or circumstances (e.g., at home, in acar, in a commercial plane, and the like), surrounding nature andconduct of the search, and the modality of the search device (e.g.,phone, TV, internet, kiosk, commercial transportation, speechrecognition, and the like). In the BSE, the Brandholders may have inputinto the various BSE Algorithms used to parse these types of searchrequests. It is expected that BSEs may have various methodologies forfacilitating agreements, arrangements, and/or resolving disputes betweenBrandholders holding similar Brands, including methods for establishingvarious BSE Economic Incentives and BSE Non-economic Incentives, andEIPs.

Example 5—Use of BSE Incentives for Celebrity Names and Terms

As described elsewhere herein, in addition to trademarked and othersimilar names and Brands associated with goods, products and services,BSE Search Engines may be designed to provide the benefits of BSE searchto individuals and others who might be entitled to protect their namesand/or earn EIPs regarding their and other names, including their ownpersonal names, such as celebrities, athletes, politicians, and others(collectively, “Celebrities”). These “Brands” may be the celebrity namealone, or the celebrity name associated with some particular product,service or information. Examples of such Celebrities may includeMadonna, The Beatles, and examples of the association of such names withparticular products or services may be Madonna Ringtones, MadonnaWallpapers, and the like. The BSE Search Engine may simply substitutethe celebrity name for, and otherwise treat it like a trademarked orother Brand, or it may apply special attributes and rules of the BSEassociated with celebrity names and related terms.

Example 6—Use of BSE Incentives for New and Otherwise Unprotected Terms

Even in situations where Brandholders and others did not have legally orotherwise protectable rights, the BSE might allow persons to acquireprotection and/or agree to pay EIPs for such terms to such persons. Thismight be used where a person desires to obtain BSE protection forphrases and terms that are new and/or that may acquire significantmeaning prior to obtaining legal protection, or where legal protectionis otherwise unavailable. It is possible that the BSE could be designedto provide protection beyond the scope of protection allowed undervarious legal systems. For example, an individual might decide to createa new term or phrase and agree, prior to publicizing that term orphrase, with various BSE Search Companies to have EIPs or otherprotections related to such term or phrase.

Example 7—Use of BSE Terms by Groups of Vendors or Industries

New or existing trade associations may be formed among various tradegroups or service or product industries that may at least partiallydetermine within that group that only certain BSE Search Companiesand/or subsets of BSE Search Companies that recognize certain Brands orterms or utilized certain agreed-upon BSE Algorithms may be used. Theparticipating BSE Search Companies may be designed to utilize specialalgorithms for certain terms and/or utilize EIPs for certain terms, orthat the rules, EIPs, etc. may only apply to BSE Searches conductedwithin a specific group of Searches, whether or not such terms areotherwise entitled to legal protection. This may be done to protecteconomic rights of the various members, to ensure consistent userexperiences and the efficacy of the systems, or a combination of theseor other objectives.

Example 8—Use of BSE Terms to Designate Types of Searches vs. IntendedSearch Results

In the foregoing Example 7, the groups or industries might agree uponcertain terms to designate certain types of searches (e.g. the term UPCwould only be used to designate a Universal Product Code) that wouldonly yield search results for the appropriate products, and provide thatany Brandbidder or Content provider utilizing that term would have toagree that only products conforming to the appropriate UPC would beassociated with the use of that term IF the UPC code was included in theSearch Term. Similarly, various groups might designate that theutilization of a certain code in the Search Term would automaticallydesignate a certain type of search, say a local search for a real worlddestination (vs. intangible information or websites or onlinestorefronts). As in the situation described in Example 6, these BSEsearch terms and the BSE Search Algorithm utilized by the BSE SearchEngines could be utilized for purposes of protecting or enhancing theeconomic rights of the various members of the groups or to ensureconsistent user experiences and the efficacy of the systems, or acombination of these or other objectives.

Example 9—Allocating EIPs for Related Searches Among Various Parties

In addition to EIPs from BSE Search Companies to Brandholders, BSESearch Engines may provide for allocating BSE Search Revenues amongmultiple recipients, or allocating and prioritizing Search Results formultiple BSE Searches among various Brandholders proportionately,pursuant to certain business rules, or as otherwise agreed by BSE SearchCompanies and Brandholders.

Example 10—BSE Search Engines Business Rules Regarding Brands

BSE Search Engines might provide that bidders for certain terms meetcertain monetary or non-monetary requirements or authorizations orpotentially are required to bid “extra” to be able to bid on searchterms including certain names of associated celebrities that might beassociated with a particular product or service. For example, the term“Madonna Ringtones” may be treated by the BSE Search Company so that aBidder on this term would be required to demonstrate either that they a)sold Madonna Ringtones and were authorized by Madonna to sell MadonnaRingtones and/or b) paid a one-time, periodic or other fee (included inor separate from the bid for the bidded search term) to use the term“Madonna,” and agree to certain limitations regarding such use, and theBSE Search Engine may agree to make a special EIP to the celebrity“Madonna,” and/or the BSE may set certain minimums for the inclusion ofthe term Madonna, in a Paid Search term including “Madonna Ringtones”depending on whether or not the bidder met the criteria under clause (a)above.

Example 11—Use of BSE System and Rules Beyond Internet Searches

The BSE Search systems and rules may be extended to other media andsearch ecosystems, for example, a bidded or quasi-bidded BSE may be usedto determine the prioritization and display of Advertising and/orContent that may be displayed or otherwise shown on Internet pages,other digital media, including radio, TV, digital billboards, and otherbroadcast media. In such event, EIPs and other BSE Incentives may bepaid to the companies displaying such Content or otherwise used inconnection with the prioritization of the display of such otheradvertising, media, search results, or placements. For example, radiostations may ultimately play songs, and televisions stations or Internetvideo sites may ultimately make available and/or display songs, audio,commercials or other Content, based on BSE Incentives including EIPs forboth Advertising and the Content. In such event, the EIPs and BSEIncentives may be used to determine or incentivize placement and/orprovide economic and non-economic incentives to media companies, contentowners or others for the display, sale, or other use or presentation ofsuch Content or advertisements or Search Results.

Example 12—Associations of BSE Search Engines May Establish Common Rules

One or more BSE Search Engines might group together to provide for theeconomic and non-economic BSE Incentives described herein, and/or formorganizations to assist in the establishment and promotion of certaincommon rules, systems, and procedures for operating BSE's vis-à-visBrandholders, Brandbidders, and end users.

Example 13—Use of Committees, Board, Arbiters, and Quasi-Judicial andOther Procedures for BSE Governance

The BSE Search Companies, Brandholders, and/or Brandbidders may formvarious associations, committees, boards, or arbitration processes forthe establishment, monitoring, and/or interpretation of legal or otherrules, systems, and procedures under one or more BSE Search Companies orthe resolution of any disputes related thereto.

These groups or systems may be given the authority to adjust BSEalgorithms, priorities of display, EIPs, etc., including monetaryadjustments that may be applied retroactively or prospectively, whethersettled through immediate payment or adjustment in future EIPs, ratios,etc., in order to allocate BSE EIPs and ensure the integrity of theBrand Search Ecosystem.

Example 14—Use of EIP Clearinghouses

One or more BSE Search Companies may form various accounting andtracking systems and procedures (a “BSE Clearinghouse”) forestablishing, monitoring, tracking, accounting for, clearing, and/orpaying EIPs to participating Brandholders, Brandbidders, etc. on anautomated or semi-automated basis. These BSE Clearinghouse systems couldtrack all of the attributes related to the establishment and operationof BSE Incentives, the BSE Algorithms, etc. and provide interfaces forvarious BSE participants to interact with, obtain reports or paymentsfrom, and otherwise track their BSE accounts.

Example 15—Basing BSE Incentives to Brandbidders on Various Attributesof Brandbidders

The nature and amount of BSE Incentives, including EIPs, may be based oncategorization of Authorized Bidders by various attributes, e.g., bygeography, status, the volume of sales of the Brandholder's products orother products, the nature of the various goods and services sold by theBrandbidder (e.g., whether or not the Brandbidder carried and soldcompeting products), and/or any other characteristic, or even subjectiveor random characterization (e.g., Tier 1, Tier 2, Group A, Group B, andthe like) for testing purposes. A BSE may utilize formulaic ornon-formulaic rules and calculations related to the activities ofBrandholders and Brandbidders, including the retroactive application ofrules or formulas based on subsequent events.

For example, the Brandholder may agree to provide an EIP to aBrandbidder ranging from ten to twenty dollars ($10.00-$20.00),depending on the sales volume achieved by the Brandbidder throughout aspecific period (e.g., one year) in the aggregate or based upon certaintypes of products. In addition or alternatively, a Brandbidder thatcarried numerous competing brands may be paid an EIP from Brandholder Xbased on the ultimate ratio of sales of Brandholder X's products vs.sales of competing Brandholders' products. In addition, if the formulasor factors which impact the EIP are based in whole or in part oninformation that is confidential to the Brandbidder and Brandholder, theBSE and the BSE Clearinghouse may be used as an independent third partyprovider or method of determining and certifying the information usedfor EIP payment calculations on a confidential, or “blind” basis toprotect the confidential nature of the information.

As an illustration, a Tier 1 car dealer may be paid an EIP of tendollars ($10) from the Brandholder on a bid for a particular Brand,provided that the dealer achieved certain minimum sales volumes, but theEIP may be reduced proportionately by the percentage of unit or dollarssales volume of the dealer to the extent that such sales volume relatedto the Brandholder's brands was below fifty percent (50%) of all of thedealers sales, or of all sales of certain competing or non-competingproducts.

Example 16—Categorization of Search Results Based on BSE Systems

BSE Search Companies may adjust their Search Algorithms to provide thatBrands and Search Results related to Brands and/or Brandbidders appearfirst in Search Results and are categorized as BSE Search Resultsspecifically, or appear based on other forms of categorization,segmentation, and/or prioritization of BSE Search Results. This may beapplied to both Paid Search Results and Organic Search Results. BSESearch Results for branded terms may be segregated from non-brandedsearch results, whether separately labeled or not, or otherwise treateddifferently based on the characterization of the Brand, the amounts bid,EIPs, and/or other attributes of brands.

Example 17—Use and Designation of Authorized Coupons in BSE Results

BSE Search Engines may utilize BSE Algorithms to deliver BSE SearchResults for various products and services, or various marketing andpromotional terms or techniques, such as coupons, discounts, specials,and the like, to help provide more relevant responses to Branded SearchRequests, or to adequately differentiate between such techniques beingoffered by the holders of Brands, Authorized Brandbidders, orunauthorized Brandbidders. For example, a specialized BSE Search Companymay be formed exclusively for providing coupons, promotions, rebates,and/or discounts authorized by Brandholders and offered exclusively overone or more BSE Search Engines.

Example 18—Using BSE Incentives to Incent Brandholders to Provide BetterInformation

BSE Search Companies may pay or otherwise use BSE Incentives or otheraspects of the BSE to incent Brandholders and others to provide betterinformation for Search Results. For example, BSE Search Companies mayagree to pay an EIP to a Brandholder who agrees to provide the BSESearch Engine with the UPC for all of the Brandholder's goods andservices and/or to provide to the BSE searchable versions of theoperating or service manuals for all of the Brandholder's products. Inthis case, the EIP may provide the only monetary incentive for theBrandholder to undertake the acquisition, management, and/ordissemination of such information and provide valuable benefits to theBSE Search Engine and their users.

Example 19—Modifying the BSE Algorithms to Reflect User Feedback andVotes

The BSE Search Companies may agree with Brandholders or otherwise tomodify their BSE Algorithms to take user feedback, ratings, and input onBrands, Branded Products, and/or Brandbidders into consideration for theinclusion and prioritization of BSE Search Results, and the EIPs may bedetermined, allocated, or otherwise impacted by such user information orfeedback.

Example 20—Allocating EIPs to End Users

The BSE Search Companies may determine to track and provide BSEIncentives, EIPs, and Non-Economic Incentives to Internet Users who useBSE Search Engines and/or frequent Brandholders or AuthorizedBrandbidders sites, thereby encouraging the use of the BSE SearchEngines to the benefit of Brandholders, Brandbidders and end users.

Example 21—Use of BSE Clearinghouse to Enforce BSE Terms and Agreements

The BSE Search Companies may determine to reduce EIPs and other BSEIncentives to parties participating in the system that abuse or fail tocomply with the various rules, guidelines, and/or procedures of the BSE,and the BSE Search Companies may withhold various amounts otherwisepayable under the BSE Systems pursuant to rules, regulations, and/oragreements of the BSE either to provide economic disincentive forBrandbidders that fail to comply or to provide adequate funding forvarious BSE processes and procedures.

Additional terms used in provisional application Ser. No. 60/744,804 maybe applicable and are expressly incorporated herein unless alreadydefined elsewhere herein, such as Content, Search Engines, SearchCompanies, Internet Search, Internet Users, Search Results, SearchTerms, Affiliates, Monetizable Actions, Websites Operators, LocalSearches, PCs, Non-PC Devices, Paid Search Results, Search Logic Terms,Search Algorithms, SEOs, Paid Advertising, Bidders, Pay for PerformanceAdvertising, Pay for Inclusion, SEO, SEM, Arbitrageurs, Brandholders,Brands, Branded Products.

While traditional Internet Searches have been the catalyst for a largenumber of instances of displaying and communicating Content over theInternet and the systems and methods described herein may be included insuch traditional search systems, there are many other instances wherethe concepts, processes, nuances, procedures, and results applicable toInternet Searches described herein may apply to the communication ofContent over the Internet or any other medium in the absence of anInternet Search.

While the economics of Internet Search Results, particularly Paid SearchResults, are driving a tremendous amount of investment and developmentin Internet Searches, the concept of Paid Search may expand beyond thedelivery of Content as a result of Internet Searches and be applied inthe context of the display, delivery and/or other communication (e.g.,broadcast or narrow cast of audio or video) of numerous forms of Contentthat are unrelated to Internet Searches, yet may be impactedsignificantly by many of the processes and procedures related toInternet Searches and described and/or suggested herein, particularlythose related to Paid Searches and the BSE Incentives, including EIPs,associated with Paid Searches.

In addition to Paid Advertising and Paid Search Results, Content may bedisplayed in the absence of Search Results or Advertising across anyform of media—Internet or otherwise—and it is expected that many of thesystems and methods described herein, e.g., for determining the displayof Content on the Internet, may migrate into other media for the displayof Content. In these situations, Media companies may utilize many of themethodologies described herein to determine which Content to display tocertain users on certain devices in certain contexts, and the order andnature of the display and/or other communication of such Content may bedetermined by methods analogous to the methods for displaying Contentrelated to Internet Searches, and therefore many of the products andservices, systems and methods described herein in connection withInternet Searches may become relevant in the context of the display andcommunication of Content that is not related to Internet Searches.

It will be appreciated that elements or components shown with anyembodiment herein are exemplary for the specific embodiment and may beused on or in combination with other embodiments disclosed herein.Additional information regarding apparatus, systems, and methods forpracticing the present invention may be found in co-pending applicationSer. No. 11/156,875, filed Jun. 17, 2005, the entire disclosure of whichis expressly incorporated by reference herein.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications, andalternative forms, specific examples thereof have been shown in thedrawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood,however, that the invention is not to be limited to the particular formsor methods disclosed, but to the contrary, the invention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the scope ofthe appended claims.

I claim:
 1. A method for protecting and enhancing brand property rightsof brandholders in their brands and branded products in connection withproviding paid search results by establishing a brand name databasecomprising a plurality of brands owned or controlled by respectivebrandholders and brandbidder information of brandbidders seeking to bidfor priority placement of the brandbidders' information in paid searchresults, and a search engine communicating with the brand name databasefor receiving and responding to brand search requests via a network, thebrandbidder information including authorized brandbidder information ofbrandbidders authorized by the brandholders to bid on the brandholders'brands, the method performed by one or more computer systems programmedto perform the steps of: receiving, at the one or more computer systems,brandholder requests from brandholder computing devices via the networkto link the brandholders with respective brands in the brand namedatabase; applying business rules of the brand name database using theone or more computer systems to the brandholder requests to link thebrandholders with respective brands; receiving, at the one or morecomputer systems, a brandbidder request from a brandbidder computingdevice via the network to have the brandbidder's information associatedwith a brand in the brand name database such that paid search resultsresponsive to brand search requests including the brand include thebrandbidder's information, the brandbidder request including a bid tothe search engine offering to pay to have the brandbidder's informationincluded in the paid search results; and receiving communication fromthe brandholder linked to the brand, via the one or more computersystems, confirming that the brandbidder qualifies as an authorizedbrandbidder, the brandholder providing input to the search engine intoprioritizing paid search results including the authorized brandbidder'sinformation that are provided to consumer computing devices in responseto brand search requests including the brand to thereby protect orenhance property rights of the brandholder in the brand in connectionwith providing the paid search results, wherein the input provided bythe brandholder comprises providing an economic incentive payment toeach bid of the authorized brandbidder to effectively increase the bidof the authorized brandbidder to improve ranking of the authorizedbrandbidder's information relative to brandbidder information ofunauthorized brandbidders included in the paid search results.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising providing economic incentivepayments related to one or more bid transactions to brandholders afterprocessing brand search requests including brands owned or controlled bythe respective brandholders.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein theeconomic incentive payments are based at least in part on revenuesderived from search terms including the brands owned or controlled bythe respective brandholders when the brand search requests are receivedby the search engine.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the economicincentive payments are processed by a clearing house independent fromthe search engine.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the input providedby the brandholder comprises providing input in the business rules ofthe brand name database that affect brandbidders and their associationwith respective brands in the brand name database.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein, if the brandbidder qualifies as an authorizedbrandbidder, the authorized brandbidder is provided an incentive basedat least in part on the brandbidder's level of association with thebrand, the amount bid by the authorized Brandbidder, and thebrandbidder's information being included in search results responsive tosearch requests including the brand to facilitate the authorizedbrandbidder bidding higher than unauthorized brandbidders and therebyhaving the authorized brandbidder's information prioritized higher thanthe unauthorized brandbidders in the paid search results.
 7. The methodof claim 6, wherein the incentive is part of an incentive programoperated by a clearing house independent from the search engine.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the economic incentive payment provided tothe brandbidder is based at least in part on a click-through to thebrandbidder's website by a user whose search request includes the brandand results in the brandbidder's information being included in searchresults provided to the user.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theeconomic incentive payment provided to the brandbidder is based at leastin part on volume of sales of the brandholder's products by thebrandbidder.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving asearch request including the brand from a consumer computing device viathe network; comparing the bid from the brandbidder to bids from otherbrandbidders associated with the brand; and providing search results tothe consumer computing device including the brandbidder's information,the prioritization of the brandbidder's information in the searchresults based at least in part on the bid.
 11. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving an increased bid from the authorizedbrandbidder; thereafter, receiving, at the one more computer systems,another search inquiry from a consumer computing device via the network,the search inquiry comprising the brand; searching the brand namedatabase using the one or more computer systems for the brand andbrandbidder information associated with brandbidders who have bid tohave their brandbidder information included in search results responsiveto search inquiries including the brand; prioritizing the brandbidderinformation responsive to the search inquiry using the one or morecomputer systems based at least in part on the increased amount bid bythe authorized brandbidder to improve the ranking of the authorizedbrandbidder's information relative to brandbidder information ofunauthorized brandbidders included in the paid search results.
 12. Amethod for conducting online searches using a computer system configuredto operate a brand name database comprising a plurality of brands ownedor controlled by respective brandholders and brandbidder informationassociated with respective brands, and a search engine communicatingwith the brand name database via a network, the brandbidder informationincluding authorized brandbidder information of brandbidders authorizedby the brandholders to bid on the brandholders' brands, the methodperformed by one or more computer systems configured to perform thesteps of: receiving, at the one or more computer systems, a searchinquiry from a consumer computing device via the network, the searchinquiry comprising a brand owned or controlled by a brandholder;searching the brand name database using the one or more computer systemsfor the brand and brandbidder information associated with brandbidderswho have bid to have their brandbidder information included in searchresults responsive to search inquiries including the brand; providing amicro-payment using the one or more computer systems from thebrandholder relating to an individual bid of an authorized brandbidderwhose information is included in the search results to increase the bidof the authorized brandbidder such that the increased bid of theauthorized brandbidder is higher than the bids of one or moreunauthorized brandbidders; prioritizing the brandbidder informationresponsive to the search inquiry using the one or more computer systemsbased at least in part on the different amounts bid by the brandbidderswho have bid on the brand included in the search inquiry, the authorizedbrandbidder's information being prioritized higher than the one or moreunauthorized brandbidders in the search results due to the increasedbid; and sending the search results from the one or more computersystems to the consumer computing device via the network, the searchresults comprising the brandbidder information of the brandbidders whohave bid on the brand, the search results presented to the user suchthat the authorized brandbidder's information is prioritized higher thanthe one or more unauthorized brandbidders.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the brand name database comprises one or more qualifiersassociated with respective brands, wherein the search inquiry comprisesat least one qualifier, and wherein the brand name database is searchedto identify brandbidders who bid to have their brandbidder informationincluded in search results responsive to search inquiries including thebrand and the at least one qualifier.
 14. The method of claim 12,wherein the micro-payment is processed by a clearing house independentfrom the search engine.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the clearinghouse comprises one or more computer systems accessible on a real-timebasis via the network by brandbidders and brandholders.
 16. The methodof claim 12, wherein the micro-payment is determined using a formulabased at least in part on events prior to the selection of thebrandbidder information from the paid search results by the consumer.17. The method of claim 12, wherein the micro-payment is based at leastin part on all of the search terms bid upon by the brandbidder.
 18. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the micro-payment is determined using aformula based at least in part on sales of the brandholder's products bythe brandbidder and is provided to the brandholder on a blind or doubleblind basis.
 19. The method of claim 12, wherein the brand searchrequest giving rise to the micro-payment from the brandholder to theauthorized brandbidder also results in an economic incentive paymentfrom the search engine to the brandholder to compensate the brandholderfor the brandholder's property rights in the brand in connection withproviding the paid search results.
 20. The method of claim 12, whereinthe micro-payment provided to the authorized brandbidder is based atleast in part as a percentage of a bid made by the authorizedbrandbidder to be associated with the brand.
 21. The method of claim 12,wherein the micro-payment is a fixed amount paid to the authorizedbrandbidder by the brandholder.
 22. The method of claim 12, wherein themicro-payment is based at least in part on a ratio of sales of thebrandholder's products by the authorized brandbidder and sales ofproducts other than the brandholder's products by the authorizedbrandbidder.
 23. The method of claim 14, wherein the clearing houseprocesses the micro-payment on a “blind” basis to protect theconfidential nature of the brandbidder's sales information used todetermine the micro-payment.
 24. The method of claim 14, wherein theclearing house reports the micro-payment to the brandholder on a “blind”basis to protect the confidential nature of the brandbidder's salesinformation used to determine the micro-payment.
 25. The method of claim19, wherein the micro-payment is processed by a clearing houseindependent of the search engine, the clearing house processes themicro-payment on a blind or double blind basis to protect theconfidential nature of information associated with the micro-payment.26. The method of claim 12, wherein the micro-payment to the authorizedbrandbidder is provided on a real-time basis to provide opportunity forthe authorized brandbidder to increase its bid such that the authorizedbrandbidder's information is prioritized higher in subsequent searchresults.
 27. The method of claim 25, wherein the clearing house reportsthe micro-payment to the brandholder on a “blind” basis to protect theconfidential nature of the authorized brandbidder's sales informationused to determine the micro-payment.
 28. The method of claim 25, whereinthe clearing house reports the micro-payment to the authorizedbrandbidder on a “blind” basis to protect the confidential nature of thebrandholder's information used to determine the micro-payment.
 29. Amethod for protecting, compensating, and enhancing brand property rightsof brandholders in their brands and branded products in connection withproviding paid search results from an Internet search engine accessing acomputer system configured to operate a brand name database comprising aplurality of brands owned or controlled by respective brandholders, themethod performed by one or more computer systems configured to performthe steps of: receiving, at the one or more computer systems, a brandsearch request from a computing device of an Internet user via anetwork, the brand search request including a brand; searching the brandname database using the one or more computer systems for the brand andbrandbidder information of brandbidders who have bid to have theirbrandbidder information included in paid search results responsive tobrand search requests including the brand; providing paid search resultsusing the one or more computer systems to the Internet user via thenetwork, the paid search results comprising the brandbidder informationof the brandbidders who have bid on the brand that are prioritized atleast in part based on the different amounts of the bids of thebrandbidders; and providing an economic incentive payment to thebrandholder whose brand is included in the brand search request from thesearch engine via the one or more computer systems to compensate thebrandholder for its property rights in the brand used in connection withproviding the paid search results.
 30. The method of claim 29, whereinthe economic incentive payment is processed by a clearing houseindependent from the search engine.
 31. The method of claim 30, whereinthe clearing house processes the economic incentive payment on a “blind”basis to protect the confidential nature of information used todetermine the economic incentive payment.
 32. The method of claim 30,wherein the clearing house reports the economic incentive payment to thebrandholder on a “blind” basis to protect the confidential nature ofinformation associated with the economic incentive payment.
 33. A systemfor protecting and enhancing brand property rights of brandholders intheir brands and branded products in connection with providing paidsearch results in response to brand search requests received via anetwork, comprising: a computer system configured to operate a brandname database comprising a plurality of brands owned or controlled byrespective brandholders and brandbidder information associated withrespective brands, the brandholder information including authorizedbrandbidder information of brandbidders authorized by the brandholdersto bid on the brandholders' brands; a search engine communicating withthe computer system operating the brand name database via a network foraccessing the brand name database to identify brandbidder information ofbrandbidders who have bid to have their brandbidder information includedin paid search results responsive to brand search requests includingbrands, the search engine prioritizing the brandbidder informationincluded in the paid search results based at least in part on differentamounts bid by the brandbidders to have their brandbidder informationincluded in the paid search results; a computer system configured tooperate a clearing house for processing economic incentive payments tobrandbidders who bid on respective brands in the brand name database ifthe brandbidders qualify as authorized brandbidders to thereby protector enhance property rights of the brandholders in the respective brandsin connection with providing paid search results; and one or morecommunication interfaces that: a) receive brandbidder requests frombrandbidders to have the brandbidders' information associated withrespective brands in the brand name database such that paid searchresults responsive to brand search requests including the respectivebrands include the brandbidders' information, the brandbidder requestsincluding bids offering to pay to have the brandbidders' informationincluded in the paid search results; b) receive brand search requestsfrom computing devices via the network, the brand search requestsincluding a brand, and c) provide paid search results in response tobrand search requests from the computing devices, the paid searchresults comprising brandbidder information of brandbidders who bid onthe brands included in the brand search requests, the brandbidderinformation included in the paid search results being prioritized basedat least in part on one or more of the amount of the bids offered by thebrandbidders; wherein the clearing house applies, on a real-time basis,brandholder rules to determine economic incentive payments provided frombrandholders to their authorized brandbidders, the economic incentivepayments based at least in part on the authorized brandbidders' level ofassociation with the respective brands and the authorized brandbidders'information being included in paid search results responsive to brandsearch requests including the respective brands to facilitate theauthorized brandbidders bidding higher than unauthorized brandbiddersand thereby having the authorized brandbidders' information prioritizedhigher than the unauthorized brandbidders in the paid search results.34. A method for compensating brandholders who provide input related todelivering paid search results from an Internet search engine accessinga computer device configured to operate a paid or bidded brand namedatabase by providing economic incentive payments to the brandholdersbased on revenues derived from the brand name database based on thebrandholders' brands, the method performed by one or more computersystems configured to perform the steps of: receiving, at the one ormore computer systems, a brand search request from an Internet usercomputing device via a network, the brand search request including abrand; searching the brand name database using the one or more computersystems for the brand and brandbidder information of brandbidders whohave bid to have their brandbidder information included in paid searchresults responsive to brand search requests including the brand;providing the search results to the Internet user computing device usingthe one or more computer systems via the network, the paid searchresults comprising the brandbidder information of the brandbidders whohave bid on the brand; and tracking the search results via the one ormore computer systems to apply a portion of revenues derived by thesearch engine from the brand search request to an account of thebrandholder that owns or controls the brand as an economic incentivepayment to compensate the brandholder for its property rights in thebrand in connection with providing the paid search results.
 35. Themethod of claim 34, further comprising providing an economic incentivepayment from the brandholder to an authorized brandbidder whosebrandbidder information is included in the paid search results tofacilitate the authorized brandbidder bidding higher than unauthorizedbrandbidders and thereby having the authorized brandbidder's informationprioritized higher than the unauthorized brandbidders in the paid searchresults.